Album Review by Mark Bayross
Remember when music used to actually say something? Now that Zack’s turned his back on Rage Against The Machine (for “not achieving their political goals” – making one of the most viscerally exciting albums of all time obviously wasn’t the point…) and all the agit-punk scallywags (Blaggers ITA, Senser et al) have presumably finally got jobs and mortgages, only Leeds anarchist collective Chumbawamba have weathered the storm and survived.
And what a storm – nearly two decades’ worth, to be precise – although Chumbawamba will probably always be remembered for sneaking an annoyingly infectious song to the top of the charts all over the world when no-one was looking, then securing an almost instant banishment from the mainstream by chucking a bucket of water over Northern comedian John Prescott at the Brit Awards.
Chumbawamba have had a busy year. They have released their autobiographical film WELL DON, NOW SOD OFF!, premiering it at the Leeds Film Festival, and have been baiting the anti-Napster brigade with a typically confrontational free MP3 song made up of Metallica, Madonna and Dr Dre samples.
WYSIWYG (or WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET) is the band’s tenth studio album and is a 22-song tirade against the shallowness of celebrity, the inanity of the media, and the pursuit of profit over human life. In a country where the tabloid press and attention-seeking nobodies can turn a healthy profit fuelling the nation’s thirst for the misery of others (the fate of Siamese twins, famous couples marrying and breaking up…), this is a message that can’t fail to capture the zeitgeist.
For the most part, Chumbawamba subvert and provoke through keyboard-driven AOR, with Alice Nutter and Dunstan Bruce taking turns at the lead vocals. Targets range from subjects that belong very much in the present: ‘it girls’ (SHE’S GOT ALL THE FRIENDS); the Internet (WWW DOT); and censorship (LADIES FOR COMPASSIONATE LYNCHING), and subjects that will continue to prey on our minds for years to come: radioactive warfare (SMART BOMB); the treatment of gay celebrities (I’M COMING OUT); and the ghettoisation of the rich and the poor (PASS IT ALONG).
Other targets are even more direct and personal. Charlton Heston is lambasted for his increasingly insensitive and stupid comments as head of the National Rifle Association (MOSES WITH A GUN), Jerry Springer becomes a Damian Hurst exhibit for his contribution to high-brow entertainment (THE PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITY OF DEATH IN THE MIND OF JERRY SPRINGER), and Calvin Klein, representing the evil of advertising and its misrepresentation of beauty and worth, is treated to the 20 second KNICKERS.
Occasionally, the album enjoys a break from the political agenda. I’M IN TROUBLE AGAIN is a light-hearted dig of self-deprecation, while the near-acapella cover of the Bee-Gees’ NEW YORK MINING DISASTER 1941 is simple and effective. What’s more, HEY HEY WE’RE THE JUNKIES may be a bit ham-fisted and obvious (TV is a drug? No, you don’t say?!), but it can’t fail to produce a grin.
The overall point of the album is probably best summed up by its opening and closing songs. I’M WITH STUPID is a sprightly, guitar-driven opener, while the melodic, countrified closer DUMBING DOWN serves as a definitive full-stop: “Will our history be written out in headlines? / Diana dolls, miracles and landmines?”
It is probably too much to digest in one go, although many of the tracks are separated by skits, samples and scratching (courtesy of Gunshot’s White Child Rix), and some are little more than a minute long. Bands like Chumbawamba always run the risk of turning off their audience with too much polemic, and some of the points made on WYSIWYG have been made many times before.
Nonetheless, the non-confrontational nature of the music should find the album some kind of an audience, and it deserves to. There is so little intelligence and risk taking in music today, and albums like this are at least trying to redress the balance.
