Twentyfourseven

Oh dear, how the mighty have fallen. This is without doubt the worst album this iconic British reggae band has ever produced. And I say "produced" deliberately, because that’s exactly what it sounds like a number of songs churned out without much passion, care or musical invention.

Not that reggae is exactly the most varied music on planet earth, but at least it has good beat appeal. And UB40 has always done it so well, albeit a little like paint-by-numbers and by playing off the same score sheet time and time again.

But at least it wasn't as soul-destroyingly repetitive, dull and droning as the stuff on this album.

They had a formula and the formula worked, as in 'Red, Red Wine', 'I Got You Babe' and 'Can't Help Falling in Love'.

Every album they have ever released made it into the top 50 UK album charts. Twentyfourseven didn't even crack the top 75. Even with a couple of musical magnets such as Marvin Priest, Hunterz, Maxi Priest, I Love & Rasa Don of Arrested Development it simply failed. It was even given away as a free insert in the UK’s Mail On Sunday, but that didn’t help either.

Some blame probably goes to the split in the group, which had been together since 1978. Citing "management problems", singer Ali Campbell and keyboardist Michael Virtue recently quit but it's very obvious from these lacklustre recordings that the writing had been on the wall for quite some time.

Not a particularly impressive swansong for one of the most popular and most successful British groups of all time.