Present Arms - UB40

After the excellence of their debut album Signing Off UB40 faced the test of the tricky second album with the confidence to do it all again. Recorded in early 1981 the album featured only UB40 compositions and only utilising the production skills of Ray Falconer whose brother Earl played bass in the band. The overall quality of the songs improved over Signing Off but Present Arms saw UB40 move away from the simplicity of pure ska or bluebeat reggae to something which was altogether slicker. As a reggae purist I prefer my reggae warts and all in the style of the Jamaican bands which recorded their brilliance in one-take 3-minute masterpieces. They would find it difficult ...  Read the complete review

If you're a regular reader of my reviews you might have guessed that I've been going through my old record collection lately! After a previous review of UB40's debut album 'Signing Off' I thought I'd take a look at their second offering 'Present Arms'. After the huge critical and chart success of ‘Signing Off’ multiracial ‘Brummie’ Reggae outfit UB40 had a difficult task in producing a worthy second album. Coming from a an area of the country that had been decimated by unemployment and racial unrest caused or at least made worse by Tory government policy UB40 taking their name from the then unemployment form clearly nailed their political colours to the mast. ...  Read the complete review