UB40 Labour of Love III Virgin

While I always considered them to be just another one hit wonder band from the 80s (their 1983 single "Red Red Wine" is lost somewhere in my dusty cassette collection but is still alive on my MP3 player), UB40 has not died, and neither has reggae. While hints of '90s pop and European disco influences surface throughout Labour of Love III, rich, warm harmonies and gentle, rocking beats transport listeners once again to those light hippie days of the '70s. Still, it's hard not to smile at lyric eloquence like "I love you. I love You. I love you. I really do," and though the incessant hopeless ballads may truly make love a labor, especially after two, three, or ten, who can't be cheered up by those spirited high voices? Heavy syncopation and live-recording-like sounds highlight "Tram is Coming," and "Good Ambition" conjures images of great "get out of my dreams, get into my car" '80s classics. However, someone should have gagged these artists before they wrote the daftly-worded "Mr. Fix It." As the band ends with their lasting call, "Legalize it... don't criticize it," they affirm their success at maintaining the energy and life of modern reggae. Sarah D. Redmond