Unlike Steel Pulse or other more pro forma U.K. reggae outfits, UB40 has a sound wholly its own. The group draws as much from R&B and contemporary British pop as from standard Jamaican fare, and it's this catholic approach that makes Labour of Love worthwhile. Although all the selections on the album are remakes of well-known or influential Jamaican songs from between 1969 and 1972, UB40 has reworked them so that each retains the spirit of the original while also capturing a modern feel. "Keep On Moving," for example, boasts piano afterbeats that could easily have fit on the Bob Marley and the Wailers' original, but its beat is buoyed by a percolating synthesizer that applies Eighties technology to the Sixties rhythm. Similarly, UB40 infuses new energy into "Johnny Too Bad" by downplaying the emphasis on vocal harmony that marked the Slickers' original and outfitting the song with a stunning array of electronic drums and synthesizers.

On the whole, the vocals on Labour of Love are a bit disappointing–ska and rock steady were, at heart, more the domain of vocalists than rhythm sections–but UB40's ingenuity and unmistakable affection for the material keeps the comparisons from being too lopsided. "Red Red Wine" is almost too good a song to be sunk by bad singing, though in UB40's version, it's Astro's confident toasting that ultimately wins the listener over. But nothing displays the band's mettle better than its exquisite rendition of Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross." With soulful backing vocals and an ingeniously layered rhythm bed supporting Ali Campbell's impassioned singing, UB40's version manages to capture the hymnlike qualities of the tune while making a convincing case for it as dance music–in short, doing everything that the original set out to do, and then some. When a remake succeeds that well, it's the result of more than talent and planning; it is truly the fruits of a Labour of Love. (RS 413)

J.D. CONSIDINE