UB40 - Love Songs (CD)

All Music Guide

Once one of the more exciting reggae bands of the 1980s, UB40 has long metamorphosed into little more than a slick cover band. If recent releases such as 2005 Who are you fighting for? hinted at a much delayed return to their roots, the arrival of a compilation album such as Love Songs put any such hopes in temporary hiatus. Among all the UB40 releases, Love Songs is probably the band's most unabashedly commercial venture ever. Released expressly for Valentine's Day on February 2, 2009, Love Songs groups together twenty of the band's most romantic songs, leaving aside their political material. Predictably, the bulk of this collection comes from the various Labour Of Love volumes of covers. Many of their hits are included, such as "Can't Help Falling In Love", the two duets with Chrissie Hynde, "Breakfast In Bed" and "I Got You Babe", and the one with Robert Palmer on Dylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight". By the way, and most unexpectedly of all, this is likely the only UB40 compilation where you will not find "Red Red Wine. Other highlights include "Homely Girl", "Don't Break My Heart", or "Where Did I Go Wrong?". Of course, there is nothing essentially wrong with these songs. Many are quite beautiful and all are impeccably executed. Still, they work much better in the context of their original albums, or even of previous greatest hits compilations. When they sit side by side with less syrupy material, these songs shine in a different light, offering the variety and contrast that is sorely missing from Love Songs. As it is, this compilation paints a onedimensional portrait of the band that not only does not render justice to UB40's music, but, more worryingly, make the eighty minutes listening experience of Love Songs a rather boring affair in the end. UB40 could occasionally be great; this collection makes them no favors presenting them as a mood music outfit. Sadly, it may be just what their post1990s audience wants: Love Songs went straight to the 3 spot on the British charts upon its release.

- Mariano Prunes, All Music Guide