Singer Terry Hall began his career some 25 years ago by mixing politics and dance music on a borrowed canvas. The self-titled first record by The Specials put Margaret Thatcher-era protest to a Jamaican beat, making for one of the best pop albums to come out after punk blew down the walls of the rack marketplace and launching the first of the ska revivals, tremors of which have inched their way into the Top 40 in recent years.

The Specials had an oddly brilliant naivety. They were wide-eyed, caring, wanting to have fun but bored and angry in hopeless, jobless Britain. It wasn’t the kind of party that can last very long, or at least where everyone has fun. Their esoteric interests pulled them toward lounge music (years before the “bachelor music” trend), and after the second record Hall left. He went on to form the slight Fun Boy Three and the forgettable Colourfield and Terry, Blair and Anouchka. By the time of his 1995 solo record, he had fallen off the radar completely.

The Hour of Two Lights is a return to form the caliber of which even he might not have anticipated. The setting this time is the Middle East rather than Jamaica, but the music is still danceable and still infused with his urgent optimism and simple phrases. “Stand Together” has the too-plain-to-deny calls that made The Specials great. With Mushtaq – a former DJ with Fun"da"Mental – and a host of musicians met while traveling through Arabia and Northern Africa, Hall has made a relevant, enjoyable and fresh record. Pity we don’t live in the world he demanded in 1978, but it’s good to have him back in any event.