For a record so blatantly psychedelic, with its pink acoustic-guitar blush and dainty paisley keyboards, there is not a lot of peace and love on Virgins and Philistines, the Colour Field's debut album. Singer Terry Hall is already a well-known grump. He darkened the Specials' rainbow dance stance with his bratty ironic tone and created the minimalist doom pop of Fun Boy Three in his own sullen...

With The Colourfield's 1985 debut album, Virgins and Philistines, Terry Hall failed to live up to his pedigree as a former member of the exhilarating 2-Tone band the Specials and its more morose (but still appealing) spinoff, Fun Boy Three. On this follow-up, though, Hall has actually surpassed those groups, proving himself to be – like the Cure's Robert Smith – a master at juxtaposing...