Guilty 'til Proved Innocent!
Studio album by
ReleasedMarch 24, 1998
GenreSka
Length59:06
LabelMCA
ProducerStoker
The Specials chronology
Today's Specials
(1996)
Guilty 'til Proved Innocent!
(1998)
BBC Sessions
(1998)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [1]

Guilty 'til Proved Innocent! is a 1998 album by The Specials. It is the first studio album of new songs by the group since 1984, with songs written by both original and new group members. As in their previous album and tours during this era, the line-up featured original band members Neville Staple, Roddy Byers, Lynval Golding, and Horace Panter joined by new members Mark Adams, Adam Birch, and Jon Read. The album also featured drummer Charley Harrington Bembridge, who had been absent from Today's Specials but had been playing live with the group since 1994. While inevitably suffering comparisons to the music released by the classic 1979-1981 line up,[2] Guilty... received far more favourable reviews than the reunited band's previous studio effort, the covers album Today's Specials, and was generally heralded as a return to form.[3][4][5][6]

The song "It's You" was released as a single promoted on Modern Rock radio stations upon the album's release. "Running Away" is based on the Toots & the Maytals song "Monkey Man," which the Specials covered on their 1979 debut album.

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Tears in My Beer"Roddy Radiation Byers, The Specials3:30
2."Call Me Names"Mark Adams, The Specials2:47
3."Fearful"Horace Panter, The Specials2:20
4."It's You"Neville Staple, Sheena Staple, Tom Lowry, Kendell Smith, The Specials3:09
5."Bonediggin'" (incorporates portions of the theme from the TV series The Munsters)Byers, The Specials, Jack Marshall4:40
6."All Gone Wrong"Adams, The Specials3:53
7."No Big Deal"Adams, The Specials3:23
8."Leave It Out"Staple, Staple, Lowry, Smith, The Specials4:03
9."Keep On Learning"Byers, Lynval Golding, Adams, The Specials2:39
10."Fantasize"Adam Birch, Adams, The Specials3:27
11."Place in Life"Staple, Staple, Lowry, Smith, The Specials3:07
12."Stand Up"Staple, Staple, Lowry, Smith, The Specials3:02
13."My Tears Come Falling Down Like Rain"Golding, Panter, The Specials3:17
14."The Man with No Name"Byers, The Specials2:44
15."Running Away"Staple, Staple, Lowry, Smith, The Specials2:53
16."Rat Race (Live)"Byers2:53
17."Concrete Jungle (Live)"Byers3:25
18."Gangsters (Live)"John Bradbury, Byers, Jerry Dammers, Golding, Terry Hall, Panter, Staple3:54

Personnel

Technical
  • Stoker – producer, mixing, engineer
  • Billy Bowers – assistant engineer
  • Mike McQuaid – assistant engineer
  • Paul Q. Kolderie – mixing
  • Sean Slade – mixing
  • Mark Trombino – mixing
  • Thom Wilson – mixing
  • Scott Gutierrez – mixing assistant
  • Gavin Lurssen – mastering
  • Shepard Fairey – artwork, art direction, design, layout design, photography
  • Dave Kinsey – art direction, design, layout design

References