Ghost Town

Ska and 2 Tone were not my thing really, but they were very popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s, at least among some people. So I heard some of it, mostly while I was in college. It was never as big in the US as it was in the UK.

Here is an article from 2011 describing the times, and the way today's song fit into those times. The Specials: How Ghost Town defined an era

Few songs evoke their era like the Specials' classic Ghost Town, a depiction of social breakdown that provided the soundtrack to an explosion of civil unrest.

Released on 20 June 1981 against a backdrop of rising unemployment, its blend of melancholy, unease and menace took on an entirely new meaning when Britain's streets erupted into rioting almost three weeks later - the day before Ghost Town reached number one in the charts.

This song is "Ghost Town" by The Specials. It was released as a single in 1981. It was not part of an album at the time, because the band broke up shortly after its release. It may have been collected as part of a "best of" album, or they may have issued it later, since the band did get back together at some point.