UB40 – Who You Fighting For? (CD)

 

Sound: B     Music: B-

 

 

UB40 is always thought of as a 1980s band that went just Pop enough to have hits and commercial success.  Starting back in 1984 with the obnoxious Red Red Wine that became a #1 hit in its 1998 re-release and set MADD and Alcoholics Anonymous back a few decades, then with hit covers of Sonny & Cher’s I Got You Babe with Chrissie Hynde and Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling In Love for the 1993 trash thriller classic Sliver, they disappeared.  Well, not totally, but they had certainly worn out their commercial welcome and Who You Fighting For? is yet another attempt at a return to form for an act that has strayed from its roots.

 

What we get are some very Reggae rich compositions throughout, including the title song and never really let up.  Reggae remains the one genre hat really never become mainstream, so a return to form here is going to have more edge by default than one from a Rap or Rock act.  However, has this genre really made any progress or is it business as usual?  Maybe that, like Blues, is the point.  It is tried and true, but is it saying anything that has not been said before?  Has digital technology made this worse and pushed all genres backwards by allowing the artists to fall into complacency with too many toys and not enough creativity?  This 12-track set splits the difference, not bad, but nothing to go bonkers over.

 

The PCM 16Bit/44.1kHz 2.0 Stereo is just fine for a new recording, though is so bass heavy that it cuts into any depth, unless that was the intention.  An intentionally muddy sound makes sense and it seems that was intended to some extent.  Fans will have to decide if that is the case.  As for the title question, is it one of those cases where it is too late for some to ask?

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo