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Maybe you loved it, maybe you hated it, but if you had ears as 1997
became 1998 you remember Chumbawamba's pub chant about drinking
yourself insensate and getting up again, Tubthumping. Amazingly,
the creators of this novelty turned out to be loud-mouthed English
anarchists who'd been making records since they got pissed at Live
Aid. But though the Tubthumper album was noisy radical-democratic
fun, the single was sui generis, and that looked to be that. Not
hardly. Chumbawamba's WYSIWYG (Republic), which stands
for What You
See Is What You Get, takes their craft up a notch, comprising 22
inescapably infectious send-ups of U.S. and U.K. culture--both pop
and political, if there's a difference anymore. From I'm With
Stupid to Dumbing Down, the lyrics may insist a mite too
confidently on everyone else's idiocy, but that doesn't mean you
won't laugh and hum. So though Tubthumping will always be sui
generis, I wouldn't put it past Chumbawamba to end up with a few
more pub chants on its dossier. If you find yourself totally
hooked, spring for the band's pricey but even more entertaining
Uneasy Listening compilation (EMI U.K.), which proves they've been
writing catchy for a long long time.
"I'm hung like a birthmark/But my brain makes the earth dark/I like to suck toes/Yours secrete fructose." Thus does MC Paul Barman commence the 18-minute pussy-quest It's Very Stimulating (WordSound). A protegee of pace-setting hip hop weirdo Prince Paul, Barman is a nerdy white guy who wishes he could pretend to be a pimp but doesn't have the guts. Instead he pursues hotties with rhymes as unlikely and inventive as any hip hop has seen. Might work, too.
Playboy, Mar. 2000
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