Chumbawamba "Tubthumper" (1997)

Tubthumper
release date: Sep. 23, 1997
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Chumbawamba, Neil Ferguson
label: EMI - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Tubthumping" (4 / 5) (live on Letterman) - 2, "Amnesia" (4 / 5) - 3. "Drip Drip Drip" - 5. "The Good Ship Lifestyle" - 7. "Outsider" - 10. "Smalltown" - 12. "Scapegoat"
[ full album playlist ]

8th studio album by Chumbawamba and the first on a major label. The nine-piece band-collective here are: Lou Watts on vocals, keyboards and as "nippy winger", Danbert "The Cat" Nobacon on vocals and as 'goalkeeper', Paul Greco on bass and as 'solid centre-back', Boff on guitar, vocals and as 'midfield dynamo', Jude Abbott on trumpet, vocals and as 'tigerish left-back', Alice Nutter on vocals and as 'team coach', Dunstan Bruce on vocals, percussion and as 'opportunist striker', and Harry Hamer on drums, programming and as 'hardened sweeper'. Neil Ferguson is also credited as band-member, although not depicted on the inlay band photo - he is credited playing keyboards, guitars, sponge & bucket.

The album was not the first I heard with the band as I already knew Anarchy (1994), which didn't make me more interested at the time but when I saw the animation movie "Shrek", I rediscovered the band. Of course I noticed the track "Tubthumping" - everyone did. I rediscovered the '94 album again, and all of a sudden I got it, a bit bewildered as to why I didn't get it in the first place. Anyway, this one is pretty neat. The album was seen as the band's commercial breakthrough, which was a difficult move for an anarchist band, and many of their "old" supporters criticised the band for selling out by signing with EMI. Apparently, the band argued that they live in a commercial world and that all record labels including their former label didn't care about their ideas, political stands, but only found the band interesting because of the potential profit. I really enjoy this one, and it makes me think of the early 80s British project-band Carter USM and its use of electronic to create alt. dance in a combo with stylistic bonds to punk rock and with a social stand, which again goes back to the late 70s more straight punk rock bands like Angelic Upstarts, Crass, and the like.

Chumbawamba has a strong critical view on capitalism, our Western lifestyle and modern consumerism, and in that positions itself like many others on a political far left-wing but unlike many other spokesmen, they do it with intelligent use of humour, brilliant lyrics and great songs. So the fact that they make use of all possible styles in a huge blend makes it very much their own blend. It's for one thing highly original but also good songwriting - and that's what music is about isn't it?!

I find this the band's best album.

Recommendable.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]

Chumbawamba "Swingin' With Raymond" (1995)

Swingin' With Raymond
release date: 1995
format: cd
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,68]
producer: Chumbawamba and Neil Ferguson
label: One Little Indian Records - nationality: England, UK

7th studio album by Chumbawamba and the last in a series to be released on One Little Indian. The album consists of two halves - tracks 1-6 being subtitled "Love" (apparently, with reference to the vinyl album's A-side), and the remaining tracks 7-13 are subtitled "Hate" (B-side of vinyl release). The first half consists of slow and harmonic folk pop compositions, whereas the second half are compositions of more powerful, energetic alt. rock compositions with clear bond to the anarcho-punk sub-culture. All songs are written with a typical good sense of musical skills, a certain amount of social awareness, and also typically for the band: a tip of satire.
I don't find it all bad, it proposes interesting lyrics but it doesn't really contain obvious great tracks and overall it disappoints in being neither this nor that.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]

Chumbawamba "Slap!" (1990)

Slap!
release date: Jul. 1990
format: cd (2003 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]
producer: Chumbawamba
label: Mutt Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 2. "Tiananmen Square" - 3. "Cartrouble" - 7. "Slap!" - 8. "That's How Grateful We Are"
[ full album ]

4th studio album by Chumbawamba originally released on the band's own label Agit-Prop (in '98 also reissued by One Little Indian). The Mutt Records label is also founded (in 2000) by Chumbawamba. Stylistically, this album marks a major change of sound and style, as the band has moved from its primary anarcho-punk style with influences from punk rock and folk to now embrace alt. dance, indie pop and dub.
The leap into a completely new style may seem enormous - fans have surely found it a radical change; but Chumbawamba doesn't just abide to commercialism or the accepted rules of capitalism. The songs reveal the band's political viewpoints as always, and they concentrate on contemporary political movements and episodes around the globe such as ultra-leftist Ulrikke Meinhof from (German) Red Army Faction [Rote Armee Fraktion], the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 in China, the situation in Northern Ireland, and the continued story-telling of reactions to former ultra-left Soviet under Stalin and life in Nazi German concentration camps during WW2.
Although, utilising the mechanisms of popular music, Chumbawamba stays loyal to its social and political viewpoints, and that mission is fully accomplished on Slap!, which proves to be the band's so far most harmonically sounding album to date. You may choose to just listen to the music, and that's a fine construction of various tunes with hooks and choruses, and you may let yourself linger on the lyrics and listen to stories about real people and crucial historical fragments.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

Chumbawamba "Never Mind the Ballots" (1987)

Never Mind the Ballots
release date: 1987
format: digital (1994 reissue)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,78]
producer: Chumbawamba
label: One Little Indian - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 2. "Come on Baby (Let's Do the Revolution)" - 3. "The Wasteland" - 6. "Mr. Heseltine Meets His Public" - 8. "...Here's the Rest of Your Life"

2nd studio album by Chumbawamba originally self-released on the band's own label Agit Prop and in '92 reissued on cd as a double disc compilation with the band's debut album as The First 2.
Never Mind the Ballots is a comment to modern politicians. The whole album is structured as two opposing politicians proposing their different stands but at the end of the album they are revealed as both basically wanting the same: they want weapon to either conquer others or defend themselves but in essence they want control over others. I like the story, the satire and the way its structured. It's definitely not an album for dancing, nor cosy small talk. It's... an interesting social and political comment, not unlike a theatrical radio-play. As music, however, it's not the most compelling treat, and when you examine the plot and the message, it becomes a wee bit naively exaggerated as always, when people become too one-eyed.

Chumbawamba "Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records" (1986)

Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records [debut]
release date: 1986
format: digital (1994 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,54]
producer: Chumbawamba
label: One Little Indian - nationality: England, UK

Tracklist: 1. "a) Prologue; b) How to Get Your Band on Television" (4 / 5) - 2. "British Colonialism and the BBC: Flickering Pictures Hypotise" (3,5 / 5) - 3. "Commercial Break" - 4. "Unilever: How to Succeed in Business" (4 / 5) - 5. "More Whitewashing" (4 / 5) - 6. "An Interlude: Beginning to Take It Back" (3,5 / 5) - 7. "Dutiful Servants and Political Masters: Abolishing Slavery (And Reinventing It)" (3,5 / 5) - 8. "Coca-Colanisation" (3,5 / 5) - 9. "…and in a Nutshell" - 10. "Invasion" (3 / 5)

Studio album debut by Chumbawamba originally released on the band's own label Agit Prop and reissued on cd in '92 as a double disc compilation together with the band's second album Never Mind the Ballots (1987) with the title: The First 2 (also on Agit Prop), and again reissued in '94 by One Little Indian. At this point the line-up counts 7 people all of which are only mentioned by their first name: Harry handling drums, vocals (guitar solo on "Slag Aid"), Alice Nutter on vocals, Boff on guitar, vocals, and clarinet, Mavis Dillon on bass, trumpet, French horn and vocals, Lou on vocals and guitar, Danbert Nobacon on vocals, and Dunst on whirlypipe and turntables.
I didn't hear of the band until around '94, and it seems the album gained little interest at the time of its release. Apparently and quite obviously, it's meant as a critical response to the whole Live Aid idea with artists in disguise of helping a whole continent in utmost poverty are basically only interested in promoting themselves. Listening to it today, it's actually quite ingenuously written, and with catchy melodies to support the harsh criticism. Just by looking at the track titles one may come to think of Dead Kennedys or Crass when they sing about the world in "the sick hands of capitalism". The strong satire has always been the band's trademark. Sometimes they share bonds with Dead Kennedys, Crass, Frank Zappa, but also Monty Python, which doesn't make it any worse.
It's more than enjoyable, and frankly, should be enlisted in all lists comprising the most interesting albums of modern pop music.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]

1992 reissue as "First 2"

Angelic Upstarts "Reason Why?" (1983)

Reason Why?
release date: 1983
format: cd (1997 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,48]
producer: Mond (aka Ray Cowie)
label: Summit - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Woman in Disguise" - 3. "Waiting, Haiting" - 4. "Reason Why" - 5. "Nobody Was Saved" - 7. "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" - 8. "42nd Street" - 10. "Solidarity"

3rd studio album by Angelic Upstarts with guitarist and main musical songwriter Ray Cowie as producer originally released on Anagram. The '97 reissue comes with two bonus tracks.

The band has taken a move away from the initial (primitive) punk rock toward more harmony-founded melodies, which could be described as pop punk, but they still play anarcho-punk songs with strong social commitment.

The album was my first encounter with the band, and it was an immediate favourite for several years in the 80s. However, the music hasn't aged that well, and today many of the songs appear as rather naïve compositions tied closely to the early 1980s Thatcher England. And the album came out at a time when music had moved elsewhere - production-wise and also stylistically. The band continued to play, and as of 2014, they still play live concerts, however after Reason Why? the band sort of vanished from the British clubs and instead focussed on a growing popularity in the Eastern European countries, and especially in the Balkan area Angelic Upstarts aas well as many other punk rock bands faced great support in the mid to late 80s.

In retrospect, the album lives its own life as what could be described as a 'time stamp'.

Angelic Upstarts "Teenage Warning" (1979)

Teenage Warning [debut]
release date: Aug. 1979
format: cd (2003 reissue)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,88]
producer: Jimmy Pursey
label: Captain Oi! - nationality: England, UK

Studio album debut by North-Eastern, English punk rock band Angelic Upstarts consisting of vocalist Mensi (aka Thomas Mensforth), guitarist Mond (aka Ray Cowie), bassist Steve Forsten and drummer Decca (aka Derek Wade). The album is produced by Sham 69-founder Jimmy Pursey.