How does it compare to the artist's other releases
Good
Value for Money
Advantages:
Timeless, Angry, Emotive
Disadvantages:
rubs against a lot of beliefs
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
OK So Ive done a few Ops on music, and I suppose I have hidden amongst the lyrics a lot Anyone can copy lyrics to make an op I suppose. So now I shall attempt to write an Op without the lyrics. Well just a few poignant ones then!
Chumbawamba are a group I have been interested in since the mid eighties, my music tastes are wide and varied. It seems weird that I should follow a band all this time Especially as for most of my life I have represented the system that they dislike! As a fire fighter and more so now as a copper I am just part of the string puppetry that is the Government! However, they have their views, I have mine and you no doubt have yours! In this free society we are lucky enough to be able to voice our views!
##### Beginnings ######
Chumbawamba were formed in 1982 (originally called the Mirror Boys I believe) and they are all definitely northern as you would hear in their vocals! They did then and possibly still do support anarchist politics. In the beginning they were found to be playing gigs in squats and small halls for benefits such as Animal Rights and Anti war movements.
I first heard (apart from what people were talking about in college) about the group when the first album came out in 1986 (Pictures of Starving children Sell Records) this was a blatant attack on Bob Geldoffs live aid.
Over the years and over their albums they have experimented with new and unique styles with masses of sampling either pieces of music or lyrics and I daresay with more than their fare share of snotty letters from lawyers from powerful music companies. Cumbawamba then were a small time band using small labels such as Sky and Trees Records and One little Indian
In recent years we have seen Chumbawamba in a more commercial light with the Laddish song Tubthumping, I had to laugh at everyone raving at this song I dont think TOTP (top of the pops) had even bothered to listen to the words! They are possibly the more apolitical of most of their records! Danbert Nobacon lead male singer, also at that time, managed to highlight the band and add to their notoriety by pouring water over the then dep. Prime minister John Prescott during the 1998 Brit awards!
So who are Cumbawamba: well in the time this album were out the main players were: - Alice Nutter, Lou Watts, Danbert Nobacon, Boff Whaley, Harry Hamer, Dunst Bruce, Mave Dillon and Neil Ferguson __________________________________ Track 1: Shhh 5:00 Almost a irish folk song entrance, then the guitars kick in, its an angry song with poigniant lyrics and a scathing attack at all the groups they had sampled for a previous album (almost got out!) but the royalties were wanted and at up to 75% Chumbawamber were not happy! As some of the samples were only 10 seconds long!
Sample lyrics:
For a few brief words and a few short lines I was taken to the coliseum, fed to the lions. And lions aren't the type you can really love enough, but you can turn 'em into rugs! Ow mate, can you spare some change? Too much. Are you down on your fashion, or down on your luck? Sometimes questions never get dropped. Hey Mick, are you dancing? I never stopped! ________________________________________
Track 2 Big Mouth: 5:36 This song is about censorship and freedom of speech! So they looked into the dictionary and came up with this little baby just to show that censorship can be worked around! This song is a kick in the nads to certain big lawyers!
Sample lyrics:
To is a preposition 'come' is a verb 'to come' is a verb intransitive to come, to come did you come? did you come good? good! Did you come? did you come good? good! Don't come in me, don't come in me Don't come in me, don't come in me It takes technique to thrill me! Did you come? did you come good? good! Did you come? did you come good? good! Did you come, come, come, come, come good? Big mouth, big mouth, big mouth strikes again Big mouth, big mouth, big mouth strikes again Also This good-good culture Bullshit motherfucker bullshit Welcome Christ, judges, lone ranger Bullshit motherfucker bullshit Padres, pastors, popes, priests Bullshit motherfucker bullshit Critics, comics, you, me Bullshit motherfucker bullshit Big mouth, big mouth, big mouth strikes again Big mouth, big mouth, big mouth strikes again
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Track 3: Nothing thats New 3:06 Again another dig at bigger groups and music corporations, this is almost an Irish ditty! It has a clear message! Steal it! As they have written in the sleeve of the album the new will be built from the ruins of the old
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Track 4: Behave 3:03
This is a tribute to The Hitman and Her now do you remember that? Coming back from the pub at 01:00 to sit with a few mates and a few tinnies watching people get drunk and dance in nightclubs around the UK! Hosted by Pete Waterman and Michaela Strachan Petes catchphrase was Behave yup, this song sums up that era of simpering drunk girls in mini skirts trying to get on TV and the Macho men doing their best to do that drunken Im a great dancer thing we all do!
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Track 5: Snip Snip Snip 2.55
I have no idea what this is about so Ill just stick in the lyrics and hope no one reads this! (Nonchalant whistling)
Well madam how'd you like it, maybe plenty off the back? I heard the coiners took the scissor to the union jack, with a snipper and a clipper and a bloody close shave making fivers, tenners, we , change. What's your size? Whats the hours? No, you don't need the hassle--take the new short cut to the old clippy castle with the ramblers and the scramblers and the loiners and the tykes and the punks and the hippies living over by the pike. Pick a coin, any coin, and with a snip snip snip you turn a Portuguese guinea to a threepenny bit; and every last watermark just curled up and died and now the king and the queen got a bit on the side. Dont be bloody silly keep away from bloody Billy cause he's shopping all the chopping going down along the valley, and supergrassing catches like a plague, to be sure, but it's nothing that a bullet in the belly couldn't cure. Please to put a penny in the young man's hat, then roll 'em over, roll 'em over, lay 'em out flat! Just deliver us kicking from our pokes and sacks to the hills of hebden, hell and Halifax, and the next bugger blabs is the next bugger dies, got a flame for your pants and a poker for your eyes where every hot guinea is another hot dinner, with the weavers and the spinners and the reverends and the sinners.
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Track 6: Look no Strings 5:34
Happy clappy in a Born again Christian style, this is ripping the poo! Out of Christianity I feel, moreover the more American style of worship, not being a Christian I dont really know if it is offensive at all but my guess would be Yes! The basis of the song is a photo that was taken of a cloud formation that was supposed to be of Jesus, and the bible bashing people jumped on a bandwagon saying that Jesus was about to re appear! Sample Lyrics:
Look, no strings--just paper, glue, and card Hark, the angels sing 'paste the lord' that was the armley tabernacle choir. Next we'll be hearing the true story of an American housewife who claims to have taken mid-air photographs of Jesus Christ in the skies of Indiana. High above the streets and houses Misses meta battle, with one hand on the valium and one hand on the bottle Somewhere over Indiana, eight miles high Meta battle sees the good lord wandering 'cross the sky
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Track 7 Happiness is just a Chant Away 6:37
Again, on the religious theme! If God and Jesus are so nice, why is it that Catholic boys are not allowed to masturbate? Why is it unclean? This song is a rant about religion then covers such items as Boy George on TOTP singing Jesus loves you Quite a Hare Krishna theme to this song!
Sample lyrics:
I'm having a wonderful time drunk on communion wine One sin over the seven Sick all over the stairway to heaven Bullshit, bullshit, priests without a pulpit Shake shake shake your blessed bells Ding dong, heaven calling, buzz buzz buzz, haircut sir You put your whole self in, your whole self out In out in out, shake it all about With a pop song, pop song, smothering love bombs You're great Im great everybody's great Everybody's great (repeat) Happiness is just a chant away (repeat) Georgie got a needle and georgie got a hit Georgie got religion and a saviour on a stick
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Track 8 Pop Star Kidnap 1:26
I have no ideas here!!!
Lyrics:
A phone box rendezvous, don't whisper a word Half a million by Monday Or roger waters gets it My little baby, they cut off his ear Half a million by Tuesday, then Don't whisper a word Shhh
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Track 9 Sometimes Plunder 5:04
Song about a group of women on a council estate became shoplifters to survive- based on real life occurrences that members of the group came across!
Sample Lyrics
All the threes and all the queen bees singing 'does the driver wanna wee wee?' Wicked ladies, malicious intent your honour, I was only trying to pick it up for lent. Does the driver wanna wee wee? Does the driver wanna wee wee? Does the driver wanna wee wee? 'cause we want to wee wee too! Why waste change, why change the habit If the girl's got to have it then the girl's got to have it Easiest pickings, wall to wall, in Englands piped ceramic malls By the dickens and the devil's daughter Bingo full house everyone's a winner The lady works in mysterious ways All because the lady loves Christmas every day You sometimes plunder, and you sometimes plunder You sometimes plunder, and you sometimes plunder
Track 10: You cant trust anyone nowadays 4:58
Apparently during the Nazi occupation of Holland, there was a clothing ration, and a Dutch man got his clothes nicked in a launderette, and ended up having to walk home naked with the exception of his umbrella other stories tell that it was a brave protest against the Nazi rationing system! True or no I have no idea
Sample Lyrics:
You can't trust anyone nowadays I'd stay at home and sit it out But in a dirty world you need a launderette Two short minutes I look the other way Some bastard robbed me blind You can't trust anyone nowadays
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Track 11: Stitch that! 2:10
The lyrics tell this story so much better than I ever could!
So this husband came home drunk each night And he thrashed her black and he thrashed her white He thrashed her to within an inch of her life Then he slept like a log, did her husband But as he lay and snored in bed A strange idea came into her head So she went for the needle and she went for the thread And straight to her sleeping husband She started to stitch with a girlish thrill With a woman's art and a seamstress' skill She pinned and tucked with an iron will All around her sleeping husband When her husband awoke with a pain in his head He found he could not move in bed 'sweet Christ Ive lost the use of me legs!' But the wife just smiled at her husband Then she thrashed him black, she thrashed him blue With a frying pan and a colander, too With a rolling pin just a stroke or two A battered and bleeding husband Isn't it true what small can do With a thread and a stitch and a thought or two He's wiped his slate, his boozing's through Goodbye to a drunken husband Kick out the jams, motherfucker! Shhh
This album in many ways has a punk flavour, as this is where the groups roots came from, but they taken Irish themes, as well as sucked in pop of the day (80s) to create a slap in the face of major corporations, groups and in some ways the church! Im not into the Group for their ideas I like them because they are original, make powerful records all of which will stand the test of time. Also they are still pretty well unknown except for the accidental hit Tubthumping! I hate being mainstream, so I love having their CDs and vinyl in my collection people always tend to go OOOO! Who are they?
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