A statistical reminder of a world that doesn't care

Continuing my trip back through the 1981 album charts.

05/07/81 : Present Arms - UB40

This was my thirteenth birthday and I can assure you I didn't spend it listening to this album. I am however expecting it to be tolerable, unlike plenty of their later efforts.

Yeah, it's at least tolerable with some nice bouncy reggae toons, although the lyrical content isn't always quite so upbeat. Easily the best track for me is "One In Ten" - they may have had three #1 singles later in their career (amongst SIXTEEN top ten singles in total) but this outshines them all because it sounds like they actually care about something. I think I'd go as far as saying as I actually like it - I wouldn't go that far for the album (I'm not really a reggae kinda guy) but I will say I'll be very surprised if I ever meet a better UB40 album.

We're at #5 in the charts this week on their sixth week of a decent 26 week run, with it having peaked at #2 in its second week (another one egregiously kept off the top by Stars on 45) - it also managed another twelve week run at the beginning of '82 after all the Xmas nonsense. The rest of the top five were the peculiar mix of Cliff Richard, Disco Daze And Disco Nites (which actually has some decent tracks on it), Motorhead and Stars On 45 with the highest new entry being Kim Wilde (#10).

Wikipedia tells us this is their second album (so maybe there's hope for their debut) and it contains "many socially and politically charged lyrics" - and that's pretty much your lot! I checked out their entry (which helpfully tells us we shouldn't confuse them with the SM UB-40, which is a World War I German submarine) to pad things out but all it did was remind me how amazingly successful they were over the years - they're still going but as two different bands now with brothers Ali and Robin having fallen out quite spectacularly in '08. Critically, this was pretty well received with Smash Hits giving it 7.5/10 and our old mate Robert Christgau giving it an A-. Commercially, they were still a couple of albums of global domination but it did chart in a few other countries, with #13 in New Zealand being the best away from these shores.

discogs.com tells you can pick up a decent version of this for £2.50 but if you want a signed version of the '10 reissue it's going to set you back £225 - but it feels to me like they're going to be very lucky to get that. I can't say I loved this but it was certainly decent enough for that sort of thing and has one very decent single on it.

12/07/81 - Enjoyably bonkers

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