Maybe it really does come down to where you stand on piggy-eyed Brummies affecting a resolutely fake Jamaican patois. The critics were happy to overlook it early on with the Thatcher-bashing lament of 'The Earth Dies Screaming' but when it came to glutinous reworkings of Fat Elvis it all became a little bit less easy to stomach.
Few bands could ever have experienced a greater inverse correlation between record sales and credibility. This collection charts that ascent/descent from the dole-queue angst of 'One in Ten' to their latest syrupy assault on The Doors' 'Light My Fire' whilst being far from definitive. Wherefore art Christmas 83's 'Many Rivers To Cross' or their second hitch-up with the divine Miss Chrissie Hynde on the bouncy 'Breakfast in Bed'.
As for the omission of 'I'll Be Your Baby Tonight' with Robert Palmer - possibly THE greatest Dylan cover of all time - from possibly five dozen other ones - well, what kind of Stalinist revisionism are we witnessing here fellahs? What's that? Trying to tone down the here-comes-the-Lilt-man coconut-karaoke element to your CV? Fair enough I suppose.
Forever linked with the like of fellow Midlanders and Two-Tone tyros The Specials, UB40 were actually far more successful in proving that pop groups really could embrace multi-racialism without making a big song and skank out of it and foregrounding the fact all the bloody time. They both also went on to record scathing attacks on apartheid with Jerry Dammers penning the joyous free 'Nelson Mandela' and UB40 coming up with - ahem - 'Rat In Mi Kitchen', the kind of phrase that class 1b might come up with just after their first lesson on 'metaphors'.
One destined for the Christmas coffee table then and like that pre-cornflakes selection box there's plenty here that might leave you feeling just a little bit queasy. It'd be a shame though if all that UB40 are remembered for is lazy, opportunist mush. Even many of the covers here actually improve upon the originals, Neil Diamond's 'Red Red Wine' via Tony Tribe being the best example.
Buy it, keep the receipt and tape it. Come the New Year Sales you'll be able to swap it for one of those 2CD's For 1 offers where they're always selling off the more recent REM albums.
