Keep the Beat: The Very Best of the English Beat (CD)

To accompany their grand 2012 set The Complete Beat, Shout! Factory issued Keep the Beat: The Very Best of the English Beat. At 16 tracks, this is only two cuts longer than the first -- and prior to this, best -- Beat hits compilation, What Is Beat?, sharing 12 of that 1983 comp's songs. "Ackee 1-2-3" and "Drowning" are absent, replaced by "Get-a-Job," "Jeanette," "Sole Salvation," and "End of the Party," substitutions that result in a stronger overall compilation, painting a fuller portrait of the band and, better still, just giving one hell of a good time. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi