POP MUSIC REVIEW - Ska Band Selecter Still Relevant After Taking a 10-Year Hiatus

It’s audacious for any rock band that has been gone for 10 years to stage a comeback. When the return is based on a legacy as thin as the Selecter’s, it seems downright presumptuous.

Led by singer Pauline Black and guitarist Neol Davies, the Selecter formed in 1979 and was a vital part of the ska-revivalist British “Two Tone” movement that also included Madness, the Specials and the English Beat. But the group made just two albums and broke up in 1981. Re-formed last year, the Selecter has a tasty new live album and a show Thursday at the Coach House proved the record wasn’t a fluke.

The new lineup (Black and Davies are the only originals on board) was resourceful enough to work engaging punk and reggae variations on the basic ska formula. And while a handful of new songs wasn’t sufficiently striking to herald a brilliant future, old songs about people struggling on the economic edge and fed up with lying politicians certainly have relevance this election year.

Black, alternately imperiously political and playfully mischievous, spent soapbox time bashing George Bush, but she never forgot to dance. Presumptuous or not, the Selecter’s comeback will be worthwhile if it succeeds only in helping new listeners discover the still-fresh, still-relevant pleasures of the band’s brief past.