Day 329: UB40 - Labour of Love
Today it’s time to plug up another gaping hole in my UK music knowledge. Unsurprisingly I was not really knowledgeable about the English reggae scene when I was living in my country of origin as a youngster, so UB40 is a band that I’ve almost completely missed, aside from having heard their version of “Red Red Wine”. As a part of my assimilation, it’s time to listen to a full UB40 album.
Album cover courtesy of DEP International
UB40 was formed in Birmingham in 1978 by a group of eight friends who started playing reggae covers when they were all unemployed, taking their name from the form that they’d had to fill in for unemployment benefits. They started playing gigs and got their big break when Chrissie Hynde saw them playing in a pub and invited them to support The Pretenders on tour. Their debut single was a collaboration with Hynde that went to number 4 on the UK charts, and they released their debut album in 1980. They called the album Signing Off to say that they’ve signed off from claiming benefits due to their careers in music.
Labour of Love was released in 1983 as a collection of covers of their favourite reggae songs by a variety of artists. They said that releasing a cover album was part of their mission, saying “We actually set out in the first place to popularise reggae. That was our intention.” But they did also say that their label was pressuring them to get a new album together and they didn’t have enough material, so it was probably an ideological decision that was fuelled a little bit by necessity.
I’ve got to be completely honest here. A few days ago I said something about not really getting bossa nova and never really thinking it’s anything other than alright, and I kind of feel the same way about reggae. Granted, that’s probably because I don’t know enough about it and haven’t listened to it enough to really be able to appreciate it, and it’s definitely something I’d like to work on. I’d love to have that moment where it just clicks, but I haven’t had that with reggae yet.
Unfortunately Labour of Love didn’t really change my mind in this area too much, I only ever found it pleasant but it just wasn’t anything more than that for me. On a day when I have more time, I’ll find some all-time album and really dig deep into it in hopes I’ll find a true appreciation for it, but today is not that day.
For me, Labour of Love is alright. It’s nice to listen to, I enjoyed it, but it was only ever fine for me. I’ll give it a 7/10, citing mostly my own ignorance as a reason, I just don’t get enough out of it today. But at the very least listening to it gave me a new thing to explore.