Signing Off

The first couple UB40 records are pretty good. This is a really enjoyable political reggae album. Apparently, these folks got connected to the two tone scene, but this stuff is a lot more politically sophisticated than that material at the time. (That will look very different in a year or two, but look at the lyrical content of the first Specials album. It's fantastic, but those guys aren't exploring socialist consciousness in any way.) This is really listenable. The lyrics and the vocals are good. I will definitely listen to this again.

This must be about the chillest album on the 1001+. Easy to put on, great Saturday afternoon music, saxophone is excellent. Some songs like Madame Medusa just run a little long with parts that don’t have much going on. But it goes into the summertime rotation.

Correcto

Reggae is a stale genre. This was UB40s debut, bit I feel like they made the same song for over forty years. At times I had to check spotify if I hadn’t actually restarted a track. Having said that, it was a great album for its time

meh

Not what I expected from UB40, but also not enough to make me a fan.

Meh

Literally the only UB40 song I am familiar with is "Red, Red Wine" and wow did they overplay that when it came out. Turns out, this album sounded nothing like that which was good! But at the same time, it mostly felt like pretty generic reggae.

You know how sometimes you want to like an album more than you actually do?

I didn't really know what to expect, so at first, I was pleasantly surprised. A couple of songs would have been just the right amount, but over an hour was definitely too much. Based on the lyrics, though, it seems like their hearts were in the right place.

reggae booooooom! e sooooobe o cheiro da maconha.

Turns out there's more to this than Red... Red Wine.

Bit boring

british reggae sure is a genre of music, i've not heard a bad reggae album on the list so far but it does all kinda bleed into each other.

I'm not a regular reggae listener, but UB40's Signing Off was strangely calming.

This was okay -- didn't love it, didn't hate it

music is love

Like the production but every track sounds much the same, not good but not awful

its fine

Sadly the music just wasn’t for me. Star for the lyrics though they were the best part of the album.

Redundant, dull, boring. I enjoy a lot of reggae. Not this snooze-fest.

Raegae? Liked the rhythm, minor

I like the UB40 story but I have to admit, I find the music pretty dull

*1980. British Reggae. *Wild mix of calypso/reggae with random saxophone and all variety of 80s instruments and sounds ala synth, keys, etc. *Sometimes it sounds very contemporary or at least 90s, but sometimes you can tell it’s an early 80s album. *Overall a fun listen, if not a little on the sad side. I didn't catch the lyrics often, but it sounded like more of a breakup album. RATING - 7/10

Reggae ?

UB40 were huge when I was a kid, but they had long since transitioned to mainstream pop reggae by that point. I knew One In Ten which isn't on here, but was another of their earlier, more political singles, but didn't have big expectations for this. I really enjoyed it, nice laid back grooves. Madame Medusa is Margaret Thatcher I'm guessing.

Chill reggae

Some nice songs: 25%

Just... average. I listened to the whole thing and a day later I remember nothing about it.

Pra quem tem muito pouco contato com Reggae, achei esse disco bem bacana. Por mais que ele seja longo e a partir de um momento pareça ser meio repetitivo, a parte instrumental é bastante explorada com vários instrumentos característicos e as linhas cantadas não são usadas o tempo inteiro, o que leva a essa atenção especial na parte instrumental. Um bom disco e eu diria que uma boa entrada para aqueles que desejam conhecer mais o gênero sem ir muito no óbvio.

I was unaware of the bands root's, lying more in dub reggae than the more pop-oriented 'cod-reggae' that I knew and despised them for! I'm still unikely to return though as there are better examples of dub, if I'm ever in that mood. If only they had 'signed off' with this and not subjected us to their later 80s and early 90s material!

I really like this type of reggae, I don't know enough about the genre to recognize the sub-genres, but this is similar to Cultura, and it's the thing I like.

British reggae album. Ok. Lets see. Groovy so far. Ok social justice. I like this more than I thought I would. The vocals are kinda annoying me, the words are all just blending into each other, which I figure might be a product of the genre but it's not my favourite. Idk not much to say about this just quite groovy. Favourite: Tyler Least favourite: I Think It's Going To Rain Today

No strong opinions one way or another. The only UB40 song I'm familiar with is "Red Red Wine" so it was nice to hear some of their other music. Made for a relaxing morning walk, but overall slightly underwhelming.

I didn't quite make it all the way through. Was better than I was expecting, based on my only association with this band being "Red, Red, Wine." Didn't love it or hate it.

Signing Off - UB40 (1980) Refreshing Reggae album in a mostly Rock list, works very well as a background music album too (which I don't consider to be lesser music), and a very good debut album. I can't think of a track I really liked more than the rest, all of them were rather even if you take King, Food For Thought and title song Signing Off (which is an instrumental) apart. Maybe their take on Strange Fruit (which was a poem by Abel Meeropol/Lewis Allan before Billie HoIiday made it into a song). Obviously not as harrowing as Billie's, but you can feel the tragic in their prosody. I think I will listen to this album again because it's a rather cool album, but the only drawback to me is that it sometimes gets too repetitive. Funnily I used to hate Red Red Wine and didn't realise it was them too. I gave it another listen and now I think it's a cool song too lol. ⭐⭐⭐ 7/10

bueno

Despite all the griping about Thatcher, the vast majority of British indie music of the 80s wouldn't have happened without her Enterprise Allowance Scheme, which paid £40 per week, plus rent, to anyone starting their own business. And bands, under capitalism at least, are commercial enterprises. It was the EAS that funded touring, independent labels, distribution, everything that got working class artists into professional careers. Or, at least, five years of great stories about the three men and a dog they played to in Fife and sessions they did for John Peel. It was this benefits culture that I presumed UB40's name referenced. However, the EAS didn't start until 1982, two years after this record. Still, the UK's benefits system was still more generous then than now. And UB40 were able to record this all on a four-track and have it sound okay. Nice rich dub tones. Although hardly as dank and gnarly as Burning Spear, say. The vocals are slight and lyrics over-earnest. Unsurprisingly, one gets bored of both pretty quickly. But, used to UB40's rank of rank covers, this debut was an actual surprise. Less syrupy. Less sentimental. Although the gross reimagining of I Think It's Going To Rain Today is true to form. Still, given what is to come, one starts to regret the decadence and permissiveness that the EAS allowed. The band was truly advantaged by tighter restrictions, a slightly harder life, and tougher struggle. The music here is marginally better. I don't think that's true of all British bands of the 80s, but I think it was good for UB40 to struggle more. 1.5 I have long scoffed at UB40 because of Red Red Wine and I Can’t Help Falling in Love and yet while I scoffed there always seemed to have been someone or other hanging around saying ‘Ah, early UB40 though…you shouldn’t laugh at UB40’. Well here is early UB40 and right enough there’s nothing funny about this. It’s grim. Even setting aside the half dozen open Jeremiads - there is a potent air of cold misery about UB40 even when they mean to be lighter. In nearly 400 albums I don’t think I’ve encountered a saxophone as oppressively woeful as that in 12 bar or Adella or 25%. The chief mourner, however, is Ali Campbell’s vocal - weedy, slightly nasal, empty of any sense of playfulness, irony, or even anger. A defeated wail, double-tracked and back in the (cold) mix like he’s sitting in the corner of the room. I understand people danced to this in the early years of Thatcher’s Britain. Jesus Christ. 1.5/5

Reggae-Pop mit gesellschaftskritischen Themen. 3/5

1. 4.5 2. 4 3. 3.5 4. 5 1. 3 2. 3.5 3. 3 4. 4 5. 3.5 6. 4 1. 3 1. 3.5 2. 4

chill i guess

I'm not a Reggae fan, but this was a great listen. Happily surprised how much I liked it.

I do like UB40’s Labour of Love album, but this one was a bit of a drag, especially at over 1 hour long. It just got to the point where it went from decently enjoyable to me begging for it to end. 2.5 / 5

Food For Thought

Very weak

Always fun to listen to.

It’s the Red Red Wine guys!! Fine background music

Reggae doesn't ever appeal to me much. So you can imagine how much less white-boy faux-reggae does. Key tracks: Food for Thought

I respect UB40 more than I like them. This was tiresome.

Plus ça change—lyrics and themes that resonate today. Nothing more to be said for this one.

Let me just pull out the reggae review… Pleasant enough background music, didn’t need a whole album of it. Enjoyable listen, probably won’t ever pull it up again.

Absolutely not.

Fuck off

Bit of background noise this one, but not unpleasantly so

Labor of love is more of a vibe

I’m sure there are certain moods in which I’d find this quite peaceful but not enough going on for me

앨범 커버도 내 스타일이었고, 노래도 전체적으로 꽤 괜찮았다. 특히 분위기가 좋았던 것 같다. The album cover was right up my alley, and the songs were pretty good overall. I especially liked the atmosphere.

Canções de extremamentes parecidas entre si, tornando a audição cansativa.

Solid reggae from a wide mix of artists.

This was a good reminder to set my preconceptions by the door. I had it in my head that UB40 was a punk band like The Clash- I don’t know why- and the first few songs were spent in dissonance. Once I started enjoying them for what they were though, album got much better.

This was great. Loved the rhythm section

Knowing only the later UB40 hits, I'd really never listened to anything beyond that. This is...fine? Sort of blends into the background. A few interesting things happening at times, I do think his vocal and vocal melodies are occasionally cool. I'm already not that much of a "reggae guy" and there's not enough here to grab my interest for this long of an album (over an hour??) Food For Thought is the high point, just overall felt like this was only OK.

legit

British. The good kind. 5/5

Sounded pleasant, but all the same

Boring reggae. 2.5/5

Очередное регги от которого у меня в штанах прохладно, а хотелось бы чилл

Nice. There's some very cool songwriting and a nice vibe. I love when it gets extra dubby! I'm kind of surprised they were so popular given that's it leans so heavily into reggae, dub and ska. Nice to hear two of my favourite songs in 'I think it's going to rain today' and 'strange fruit', but kind of a shame they took away some of the melody elements and harmony elements that make them so good while putting their own stamp on them. In general there's something about the production choices that doesn't quite chime for me. Maybe it's the clean 80s squeeky kind of sounds mixed with the dub that clashes a bit for me personally.

Alright reggae. Doesn't quite sound like a marley thing, so does showcase some differences where previously I thought it always sounded the same. So helpful there

dull as dishwater

Not totally blowing me away, but still a pretty nice album. I'll always enjoy some reggae drumming and the keyboard work is pretty neat too. I can almost see where some of the complaints about it being repetitive are coming from but also I think some people just aren't paying enough attention when listening to an album. Definitely leans in on it's lyrics more than anything else. 7.5/10.

3 - decent

boring

This one surprised me. I had thought of UB40 only for the cringy hits that would come later but this one was pretty good and politically tinged. Enjoyable if not a bit too long with the instrumental tracks.

Monotonous. Too long.

Če je to to, kar mislim, mi ne bo ful všeč. (Poznam "Red Red Wine".) Ughhhh, ja je to, kar sm mislila. Reggae. Not a fan. V najstništvu sm se še mal silila z Marleyom, kot odrasla pa sm dojela, da I just don't like it. (66 minut! :() Fajn saksofon ("12 Bar").

I was ready to hate this album, Red Red Wine is a scourge on the soul of music. That song isn't on here and neither are the silly uplifting lyrics of that song. It's a Neil Diamond cover! Okay, for this album, the contrast of lyrics and vocals and instrumentation was subversive and ingenious. A distinctly different approach from the Punk and Post Punk style of the time. While I wouldn't put this in constant rotation, I came away impressed by a band I had previously dismissed.

Not bad, per se. Just repetitious background music. Should be played in a café underneath the chatter.

I've been on the record shitting on reggae, which probably hasn't been an entirely complete account of my feelings. Throw on Exodus and I'm jamming hard just like everyone else. There's lots of reggae I definitely roll with. I think my issue is that when it isn't good, it's terrible. Not terrible in a "that's giving me a headache" kind of way. Terrible in a drab, monotonous, soul-sucking kind of way. Then as my soul gets sucked I get a headache. So, all that aside, UB40 is walking a bit of a middle ground, probably by pushing the beat a little faster, giving it that more pop-ska angle. Some undeniably solid tracks in here. Just too much dodgy filler, which is exacerbated by the unnecessary length of it all. Still, I can hang out with this album occasionally. But not too often, lest it give me a headache.

After an amazing string of albums, normal programming has resumed with a straight-up three star from a British band from the 1980s.

Very good album. First time I'd listened to a full UB40 album and glad I started with this one. This was not "Red Red Wine" time and was a mixture of instrumental & singing songs. I plan to revisit this a lot and think it will end up being one of my favorite reggae albums. People in Hawaii LOVED UB40 & now I know why. Also, the name UB40 coming from the name of the unemployment form is one of my favorite band names ever.

Writing the review and I can’t remember much I loved or hated about this album

noioso, niente di che

No

would been a smooth 4 star when it was not lacking that much of missing vocals. Not on every song necessary, but the ratio was off

Always thought of UB40 as a 1-hit wonder with Red Red Wine (which itself was a cover). So I was surprised by how good this was. Also by the date. And that it’s their debut album. A great listen that I can see coming back to. I kept thinking these guys definitely influenced Sublime. More than just the reggae too. Vocals and all.

Really pleasant surprise

It’s reggae, all right – still heavy on the two and the four, but warped/modified by being residents of the home island. The playing/voices are good, and the sax adds some nice color. An enjoyable listen overall. Bonus star for the combination of “Burden of Shame”, the Randy Newman cover (which sounds nothing like Randy Newman, a neat trick) and having the balls to name themselves after the Brit unemployment form.

Enjoyed this way more expected. A band famous only for “Red Red Wine” released a very passable and authentic reggae album. Almost a 4 for surprise value, but realistically I’m not likely to have this on repeat listens.

some chill music that i don't love

Cool, nice reggae

eh, not my thing

Who knew these white boys could jam

According to Caroline "they all sound the same" - which is probably fair - but I didn't mind this on a relaxing morning.

Very run reggae tracks. It's nice listening to the debut album of a big band. They haven't yet finalized all of their big hits, but you get some really nice things of how they are working it out. I don't listen to a lot of reggae, but some amazing bits and fun tracks.

A bit of a surprise that this band broke through in the early 80's with everything else going on in the music world Tyler, King and Food for Thought dominate the album - that makes it four stars right that Sadly, the other songs dont reach the same heights

So long and so boring

Coolcoolcool

UB40 hits I heard on 106.7 Lite FM doesn't do this album justice.

Pænt ligegyldigt reggae. Skulle jeg høre sådan noget igen, så ville jeg hellere høre Bob.