Review Summary: Chumbawamba manages to back up their super-hit with an album that eclipses it several times over.
"I have a Chumbawamba song stuck in my head"
"Which one?"
"rollseyes*
- Ted and Marshall, "How I Met Your Mother"
Everybody who was alive in any conscious way during the nineties has heard "Tubthumping" before. The cheerful smash hit that sold 3 million copies of the album it's featured on is instantly recognizable by almost anybody. And it was deserving of that praise. It's catchy, well-written and easy to sing along to.Now it's just considered one of those one-hit-wonder nostalgia songs in which people reminisce about college or their 20s when they hear it. But the people who consider it as that are wrong. Because Tubthumper is much much deeper than that.
The album opens with the super-hit, although it's not the radio version that most people associate with it. It opens with electronic noise (which you have to get used to to enjoy this album) and a man saying something to the effect of "I thought that music mattered. This is bollocks. Only the people matter,". This sets the tone for the album, which is not only a collection of catchy electronic hits. Every lyric on this album serves some anarchist purpose. "Tubthumping" isn't just a motivational song, it's a "when you *** with us we'll just get right back up" song. Every song is littered with clever lines like "Here's the good samartian/looks away and carries on" and "She's a poet, she's a builder/She's as bored as bored can be/She's a have-not, she's a know-it-all/She just knows how to say yes". Chumbawamba are angrier than the song that they're remembered for suggests, and the lyrics back up their anti-government protests fluidly and convincingly.
For people who love "Tubthumping" and are looking for 12 tracks of the same "harmless", cheery rock, you're both in and out of luck. One one hand, Tubthumper is an extremely catchy album, and anyone who appreciates light and sometimes electronic-tinged alternative is bound to make some favourites here. However on the other, this album is not 12 tracks of the same thing. "The Big Issue" begins with surprisingly brilliantly crafted acapella vocals, "Mary Mary" begins with a woman saying the Hail Mary, "Outsider" is almost completely electronic, and of course the amazing instrumental (and sometimes using very well-chosen samples) segues between tracks keep the album fresh from beginning to end.
It is rare to find an one-hit-wonder album that keeps up the quality of its hit single, but Chumbawamba managed to catch lightning in a bottle on Tubthumper. I recommend this to anyone who can recognize good music.
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