Chumbawamba, 1982-2012

[TheLazenby]

I thought I'd mention this here since no one seems to have a thread about it.... Chumbawamba announced last month that they were calling it quits, permanently, after a thirty-year career.

I always thought Chumbawamba got the short end of the stick in America - one overplayed hit that no one knew the meaning of anyway, and they were forgotten.  Hell, I stopped telling people they were my favorite band, because they'd ask why I still liked "some one hit wonder from the Nineties."  They were so much more than that; even their lesser albums ("Slap!" is truly awful, in my opinion) have their moments.  Their lyrics often mock the faults of the world in ways I've never heard another band do, and if they took offense at a particular topic - like copyright - they skewered the living hell out of it.  (For example, at the peak of the Metallica/Napster controversy, they released a song exclusively as a free MP3, blatantly sampling music from the artists who spoke out against Napster.  The main hook was the guitar riff from "Enter Sandman"!)

So, if you're the downloading type - their CD's are ridiculously expensive now - here's a quick overview of their albums.

THE PUNK YEARS
1986 - Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records
1987 - Never Mind The Ballots... Here's The Rest Of Your Life  [These two are commonly found as a compilation CD called 'First 2'.]
1988 - English Rebel Songs 1381-1914  [Literally.  After two raucous, punk-ish albums, they put out a disc of beautiful acapella folk songs!]
1988 - 101 Songs About Sport  [Again, literally!  Under the name 'Sportchestra', they recorded 101 very brief ditties about English football.]

THE BRIT-POP YEARS
1990 - Slap!  [Their first pop album.  Only eight songs - and a reprise - all of which are long and repetitious.]
1992 - Jesus H. Christ  [Never released, due to a multitude of samples and musical references they couldn't gain permission for.  It's a shame, because this has always been my absolute favorite Chumbawamba album... and thankfully, one easy to find in bootleg form.]
1992 - Shhh  [What became of "JHC".  New arrangements to remove the samples, and new lyrics attacking copyright.  Quite hilarious and bitter in spots.]
1994 - Anarchy  [Probably better known for its graphic cover, but contains many of their best known songs.]
1995 - Showbusiness!  [A live album, drawing heavily from "Anarchy."  High energy all around... the revamped version of 'Stitch That' from Shhh is AMAZING.]
1995 - Swingin' With Raymond  [Sort of a failed concept album, split into two distinct halves - 'love songs' and 'hate songs'.  Still has a fair bit of decent material, though, albeit feeling half-baked.  I did my own re-edit of this album that fleshed out the concept.]
1997 - Tubthumper  [*sigh*  The album they disowned.  If you must get it, ignore the censored American version.  Try to find the Japanese version with no censorship and five extra tracks to boot.]
1997 - Amnesia  [Released only in Japan.  Aside from numerous versions of 'Amnesia', including two re-interpretations by other artists, much of the disc consists of country-styled renditions of mostly recent and a couple less-recent Chumba tracks.  Surprisingly, these are all fantastic and well done, making this odd 'album' worth the hunt.  Incidentally, a similar set of remakes was done for tracks from 'WYSIWYG', but only ever saw the light of day on an impossible-to-find German promo disc.]  
1998 - Uneasy Listening  [A collection put together solely to tempt 'Tubthumper' buyers into scoping out their older albums - though oddly, this never came out in the US!  Sadly, the title is correct, as the tracklist is a total mishmash; outdated punk songs sitting awkwardly amongst pop songs, filler tracks already pointless on prior albums, obscure compilation tracks, and only one new song.  Not worth it, really.  The fact that they ended up including 'Tubthumper' as a 'bonus disc' says something.]
1999 - WYSIWYG  [Their second and last non-independent release, this time full of the outspoken anarchism they had to tone down for "Tubthumper."  One can't deny, though, that "She's Got All The Friends" is an obvious "Tubthumping" copycat...]
2002 - Readymades  [It's hard to categorize this album.... 'techno folk', maybe?  Pointed lyrics, beautiful melodies, and you can dance to it.]
2003 - Revengers Tragedy  [Their score for the movie of the same title.  Mostly instrumental, but the music strongly resembles the "Readymades" style.]
2003 - English Rebel Songs 1381-1984  [A re-recording, with a slightly different song selection.  I never understood the point... the original is great.]
2004 - Un  [The last album to feature Danbert Nobacon, and one that sadly creeps back into "Slap!"-style repetition to pad out material.  This one never impressed me.]

THE FOLK YEARS
2005 - A Singsong and a Scrap  [And with this album, Chumbawamba became a mostly-acoustic group that did strictly folk.  Like those that followed, this album is a true gem.]
2006 - Get On With It!  [Another live album, vastly different from "Showbusiness!"  Heavy on material from 'Singsong' and 'English Rebel Songs', though they do dip briefly into their old material, now rearranged to fit their much tamer sound.]
2008 - The Boy Bands Have Won  [Back to the WYSIWYG style of packing an album with brief-but-memorable tracks; two of which, the incredibly relevant "Add Me" and the amazing true story "El Fusilado", stand out above the others.]
2010 - ABCDEFG  [Their final proper album, sounding similar to 'Boy Bands' but with each song centered around the theme of music.  "Torturing James Hetfield" is hilarious, with Chumbawamba turning their own brief success into a punchline.]
2012 - Big Society!  [Unfortunately, I haven't heard this one!  All I know is that it's a cast album for a stage show in which Chumbawamba starred.  This is to be the last full-length release under their collective name.]

Seriously, I can't stress enough how rewarding it'll be to hunt down their other albums, especially if you only remember 'that one'.  You'll be amazed at just how unrepresentative of their music "Tubthumping" actually was.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

You got a great taste in music.

[hypehat]

.....they had a 30 year career?! Holy f***. They taught me at age six that 'pissing' was a swear word from THAT SONG, so I am grateful for that.

They sound to have a remarkably psychotic career and for that I applaud them.

[TheLazenby]

This list of albums is nowhere *close* to everything they put out.... this doesn't touch the mountain of full-length demo tapes, plus Danbert's solo albums, all of their EP's and singles with non-album material, the boatload of punk compilations they contributed songs for, etcetera, etcetera.  I'm trying to collect it all at the moment.

[Alex]

I saw the notice about the breakup on their website a couple weeks ago. It's a shame too, since I'm just now starting to get into their stuff beyond the Tubthumper album (US version-what exactly was censored from it aside from the photos in the liner notes?). WYSYWIG is great...I love how they run the gamut of musical styles, yet it doesn't sound contrived one bit. Torturing James Hetfield (from their most recent album) is just downright hilarious. I'd consider Chumba to be great for someone who likes the political message of a band like Rage Against the Machine, but might not really like the heavy metal sound, and also enjoy a little humor injected into their politics.


And to top it all off, She's Got All the Friends contains a sample of Murry Wilson screaming "What's the matter? You make too much money buddy?!" from the Rhonda session.

[TheLazenby]

Nothing major - harder words were cut from the dialogue between songs.