UB40 - 5 CLassic Albums

Rating: 4/5

Review:
Excellent value

There's no doubt that this box is excellent value - you get five of UB40's albums with good sound and decently packaged. The albums are:
Present Arms (1981)
Labour Of Love (1983)
Baggariddim (1985)
Labour of Love II (1989)
Promises And Lies (1993)

All this for under a tenner (at the time of writing) is a real bargain. How "classic" these albums are is a matter for debate. Many people love them and UB40s later, more pop-orientated style was extremely popular in the 80s. For me - and this is just a personal view - they were a truly great band when they made Signing Off in 1980, with its genuine originality and bite. I saw them live in 1983 (the time of Labour Of Love) and they still had some of that, but it faded over the next few years and my interest rather faded with it, so it's been interesting to revisit some of their later albums which for me remain decent but nothing special.

That said, two of these albums went to No.1, two more were Top 10 and even Baggariddim was Top 20, so you're getting proper, big-hit stuff here and it's probably wrong of me to carp. Not many people share my view of UB40, and certainly if you like UB40 in Red Red Wine mode, this is an excellent box of hit albums in good quality at a bargain price.