Customer Reviews

Best of 1

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Some very catchy songs here. But I mainly bought this album for the big American hits such as 'Red Red Wine' and 'Please Don't Make Me Cry' not bad at all. However this version on this canadian import of Best of UB40 1 has the short version of Red Red Wine. It also has 'Many Rivers To Cross' as well as 'Cherry Oh Baby' both of which are NOT available on the American release of Best of UB40 vol 1. That's why I got it. However the UB40 album 'Labour Of Love' (pt 1) is still the best anywhere!

This CD has a better selection of tracks (and has *eight* more of them!) than the American version also available from Amazon.com. This album has the most popular tracks of the band of their early times with a number of major hits. My favourite is "I Got You Babe" (with Chrissie Hynde), but "Red Red Wine" and "Rat In Mi Kitchen" are really great too. The rest of the album is ok, but overall not as fantastic as the "[import]" version of "Volume Two", and hence the four star rating. Nevertheless, this album deserves a place in your collection - get it.

If you're new to UB40, expect 80's and 90's reggae-like pop. In other words, it's reggae that has been "adjusted" towards the tastes of those of us who enjoy pop, and perhaps hold no particular interest in "true" reggae. This is a good place to begin, but I would rather get the "[import]" version of "Volume Two" first.

If you enjoy the music of UB40 then this is the album to get. The US releases of Vol 1&2 don't cover all the songs on this gem and leave out one of the best (IMO) "Don't Break My Heart". You can check the track listings on the other 2 CD's but why carry two CD's when you get all the songs on one for roughly the same price?

UB40 has always been "pop" like with "Red Red Wine", "Please Don't Cry", "Cherry Oh Baby", "Rat In Mi Kitchen", but that's their style. If you're looking for "hardcore" reggae stlye you'll need to look at other artist like Gregory Issacs, Yellow Man, Marley...etc. But if you enjoy UB40, I can't recommend this purchase more... kick back and relax with this one :)