Signing Off - UB40 (Signing Off - UB40)

Member Name: polydeuces

Product:	Signing Off - UB40
Date:	10/08/08 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: -

Disadvantages: -

It was 1980 and Britain was celebrating, if that is the right word, the 1st anniversary of the Thatcher government. There was one particular phenomenon which was affecting the towns and cities of Britain at that time and that phenomenon was mass unemployment. Not the mass unemployment which had risen above 1mn during the previous Labour administration but levels of 3mn plus. It would have registered at over 4mn if the Conservatives had not continually changed the method of counting unemployment. To receive unemployment benefit at that time you had to complete a UB40 form and it was this that gave the name of UB40 to a band of young men from Birmingham. For their first album 'Signing Off' they even used a mock UB40 form as the cover.

The influences of UB40 were from protest songs and the medium they used for the broadcast of their protest was reggae. Reggae had long been an emblem of protest through people such as Bob Marley and Linton Kwesi Johnson but UB40 used it in the context of a multicultural Britain and its problems. Their first single 'The Earth Dies Screaming' is not on the album and was a minor hit. The follow up was 'Food For Thought' another anthem for disaffected youth. UB40 were not following the protest trend of the punk era as they were more thoughtful and ultimately less cynical. They were also significantly better musicians than all but a very limited number of punk bands.

Signing Off starts with Tyler which is about a black youth found guilty of a crime he did not commit. The songs construction and production is very understated and with Brian Travers beautiful saxophone treatment plaintively wailing beneath. Much of UB40s strength comes from theexcellence of Travers and fellow brass players Norman Hassan and Michael Virtue. It is Travers who carries this album though along with Ali Campbell extraordinary vocals. Ali Campbell submerges his thick Dudley twang under a mock Jamaican style which is wonderfully effective. He is a vastly underestimated vocalist. On 'King' the harmonies Ali attains with brother Robin Campbell are simple and on '12bar' the tight rhythm unit that UB40 had already become was much in evidence. Side 1 ends with 'Burden Of Shame' which is a brilliant song.

Lyrically Burden Of Shame grabs you :
There are murders that we must account for,
Bloody deeds have been done in our name,
Criminal acts we must pay for,
and we carry the burden of shame.

The second side begins with Adella a bouncy instrumental followed by 'I Think Its Going To Rain Today' which again features Travers excellent sax. 25% follows which has a deep bass line with and heavy drumming but with a striding beat underneath. After Food For Thought comes Little By Little featuring a strong organ solo by Michael Virtue. Finally comes the title track Signing Off which is yet another instrumental which ahs a cheery beat. There is a passing thought that Signing Off was part debut album part demo album. It was produced on UB40s own label -Graduate - and partly by the late Ray Falconer whose brother Earl was the very accomplished bass player. Other production on the album was credited to Bob Lamb.

With the album a bonus single was also given which features 'Madame Medusa', a song aimed directly at Thatcher, 'Strange Fruit' is a cover of the Billie Halliday song about the lynchings of Negroes in the US in the 1940s. And finally 'Reefer Madness' yet another instrumental and, of course, aimed at the burgeoning drug culture of the time.

For a first album Signing Off was simply brilliant. UB40 were the first British reggae band that could touch the Trojan originals for the quality of their songs and the simplicity of their playing style and production.

The problem for UB40 was they got better and better. With each increasing level of polish they lost that immediacy and simple presence in their music. They got too good and it all got too easy. But all that is for a later review.

Summary: -