Britain's biracial UB40 is arguably the most popular non-Jamaican reggae band ever. A series of English albums has turned eight young Birmingham men (who named their band after an unemployment form) into big-league pop idols in their native land. Their second American release, Labour of Love – a collection of cover versions – broke the ice in a big way here as well. Garnishing its...

Like Culture, Burning Spear and other great Jamaican bands of the Seventies, England's UB40 uses reggae's joyous buzz to put across some devastating social observations. Behind the vivid cartoon cover and pumping, singsong title track of the band's fifth album lurks a metaphor as potent as Bob Marley's "Small Axe." Apartheid isn't mentioned by name during "Rat in Me Kitchen," but by the time...