Two of the six songs on the EP Little Baggariddim – the truncated American version of UB40's new British album, Baggariddim – were recorded several years ago, yet the whole record coheres brilliantly. On "Mi Spliff," the band's toaster, Astro, celebrates the wondrous qualities of marijuana, then merrily runs down a list of cannabis nicknames in front of James Brown's one-drop beat. It's one of the most traditional reggae songs UB40 has recorded, and by following it with "Hip Hop Lyrical Robot," the band suggests the common purpose behind Jamaican toasting and New York City rapping. Bassist and coproducer Ray "Pablo" Falconer drives the song like a Caribbean Bernard Edwards, and the verses shift from emcee braggadocio to a frank look at racial gamesmanship.

"Don't Break My Heart" – which appeared on 1983's sweet Labour of Love – is a ballad that makes the case for Ali Campbell as a great vocal stylist. It's followed by "One in Ten," a raging song similar in theme to Bob Seger's "Feel Like a Number." It manages to be universal at the same time that the lyrics – "I'm another teenage suicide/In a street that has no trees" – evoke the band's barren, industrial hometown of Birmingham.

In this context, the cover of "I Got You Babe" is more than mere proof that Sonny and Cher have followed T. Rex into revisionist hipness. With the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde spurring Campbell, the song transcends period schlock and reemerges as a convincing pledge of solidarity, from singer to singer and from band to fans. It completes what will surely stand as one of 1985's best EPs, and it makes one hungry for a Big Baggariddim. (RS 456)

ROB TANNENBAUM