Yes, I remember this record, a floating one after the end of This Heat. Soft was no foreign language for the trio – even their blue and yellow debut, hard core in many ways, contained passages, moments at least, with a touch of Robert Wyatt’s tenderness. That became even more obvious on their other masterpiece, „Deceit“.
Dusting himself off after the collapse of the band in 1982, guitarist/vocalist Charles Bullen united with Julius Samuel to form Lifetones and embraced the sounds of the local West Indian community to fuse reggae flavor to the kind of propulsive, rhythmic, and experimental music made by This Heat.
„For A Reason“ was a great leap, one that created a strange, unsettling mood as Bullen´s multi-tracked, chant-like vocals met dub beats and Krautrock-informed repetition. Where „Deceit“ dealt (among other matters) with the nuclear threat, „For A Reason“ was even quoting Bob Marley in its lyrics: “ … you love the life you live, you live the life you love.“
Even though This Heat had no commercial success to follow up on, For A Reason was an album created with no intention of hitting the charts. Reissued on Light In The Attic, Lifetones´ single album retains a timeless quality and perhaps–on tracks such as „Good Side“–a futuristic sound that nobody else ever caught up to.