It’s part of the great tradition of popular music that each emergent genre follows a trajectory in which it starts as outsider music, treated with suspicion, disdain, fear and animosity by established cultural commentators, gains niche traction with the young, and then enjoys increasing popularity until at last it becomes mainstream. It’s something to do with that Gramsci bloke and by turns all manner of street musics, from blues and rock ‘n’ roll to punk and indie have followed the path towards losing their souls.
But with reggae, it seems different somehow. However rich and comfortable its exponents might become, however many millions of dollars it might turn over per annum, whenever I hear reggae I picture cheerful looking gentlemen in pork pie hats sat on a curb in Kingston with battered old guitars, a tea box bass and drums made of pots and pans and street furniture. I’m sure that’s not really the way it is, especially not for a band like UB40 that was founded on the sun kissed shores of King’s Heath Birmingham, but still it does frequently sound as if reggae is more in touch with its roots than other genres.
Which is why an acoustic covers album, almost guaranteed to be a bad idea in any other type of music, is not necessarily bad thing for a reggae band, and the new offering from Ali, Mickey and Astro is, however skeptical you might feel at first, an excellent listen.
Of course the trio have the vocal talents of Ali Campbell to rely on and here, although his vocal stylings are in many cases very similar to the originals, the stripped back arrangements allow his voice to shine through more than it did on some of the band’s lusher arrangements. Behind the vocal are some particularly well thought-out keys and percussion – this album does not feel like one of those chuck together jobs that sometimes arrive with the unplugged label on them. It feels, to coin a phrase, like a bit of a labour of love.
The album opens strongly with an irresistibly danceable “Kingston Town”, where a jaunty beat behind Ali Campbell’s vocal and some pretty guitar fills combine to create a lighter, and prettier version of the classic single and this pattern is repeated throughout – fine vocals (I’m going to pick “Many Rivers To Cross” as the best of the bunch), with a sympathetic accompaniment and always some little thing to latch on to, that might have been omitted, or have gone unnoticed in an electric environment. It’s particularly true on “Homely Girl”, which tells its story much more clearly than usual, and on “Food For Thought”, which has a lovely off kilter chug and some great guitar bends.
On tracks such as “Red, Red Wine”, Astro supplies new wicked and wily talk overs in “an acoustic stylee” and Ali’s daughter Kaya contributes a sultry vocal to “I Got You Babe”. There’s even Pato Banton reprising his performance on “Baby, Come Back”.
Add a Greatest Hits disc to the package and what are you going to say? It will be nice to have a new album or originals soon, but in the meantime this is an excellent reminder of just how good this version of UB40 can be.
Oh and there’s a celebratory brand of red, red wine available in your local supermarket. What more could you ask?
