Ub44 [Import]

Julia Fordham, UB 40 | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 1, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Virgin Int'l
• ASIN: B0000074NF
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,829 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. So Here I Am

2. I Won't Close My Eyes (Remix)

3. Forget The Cost

4. Love Is All Is Alright (Remix)

5. The Piper Calls The Tune

6. The Key

7. Don't Do The Crime

8. Folitician (Remix)

9. The Prisoner

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a lost gem, August 12, 2001

By 

R. Toomey (Piscataway, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ub44 (Audio CD)

After many years waiting for this to be re-released in the U.S. I gave up and bought an Import copy. This is a very good album and unfortunately not too many people have ever heard it. It was released right before their breakthrough U.S. release "Labour of Love". I guess you can say that it was released at an awkward time. Three of the best songs on this album "I Won't Close My Eyes","Dubmobile" and "So Here I Am" were released on a Greatest Hits Collection entitled "80-85". It was a compilation of their songs from the first four albums. The rest of these songs are good as well. I actually prefer their 80's material because it was more straitforward reggae. They got more commercial as the 90's rolled around. Which I'm not saying is bad. There's nothing like some English boys playing some reggae. It's good to hear this again after being in hiding for so long.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fits with their other works of that time, March 23, 2009

By 

Aaron McAllister (Houston, TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ub44 (Audio CD)

I bought UB44 as part of my gradual effort fill in some holes in my collection. I listened to it a few times initially, but then set it to the side while I was working on other stuff. Not unusual for me. I am going to put it back in rotation again soon, so consider the 4 stars provisional. My final opinion could be 4.5 or even 5, depending on long-term results.

This album certainly fits in among their other output at the time- Signing Off, Present Arms, Rat in the Kitchen, and Geoffrey Morgan being the ones I was already very familiar with. Confrontational, sharply observed and plaintive, all locked up with a generally good beat. But it is also a little harder to get into than some of the others I listed. I would actually suggest Geoffrey Morgan or Rat in the Kitchen as a start for the curious, followed by Signing Off and Present Arms and others.

I have not tracked too much of their later stuff, after maybe Labour of Love II. Though I have found out some of it is now worth a closer look.

As lightweight as UB40 are sometimes considered in the mainstream (Red, Red Wine and all that), their music routinely has some of the best lyrics going, and they put them to good use in telling often kick-to-the-gut stories. A wrongly convicted man in "Tyler", a sarcastic officer serving a 3rd world dictator in "You're Not the Army", the stifling rage of city life in "Silent Witness", the suicide of a prostitute in "The Pillow". The real trick is that they don't knock you over the head with politics. They draw you in with the quality of the underlying music and let the story tell itself from there. Very underrated. There's a reason they've been around for thirty-plus years.

5.0 out of 5 stars Carrying the Torch, August 3, 2011

By 

Paul W Gregerson - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ub44 (Audio CD)

More wonderful sweet reggae. Complex rhythms within a beat you already know, "Music So Nice" from a group you already love, nothing better...