Chumbawamba SHHH CD

Shhhlap! is more of a public service than anything new -- a two-fer of the albums Shhh and Slap! Both have their significance in the Chumbawamba canon, marking a turning away from their outright punk past and into a more individual, modern sound; bringing out the innate humor and wordplay that's been one of their trademarks ever since. Shhh is a decidedly cynical look at the music business; the album that appeared after their projected music business take, "Jesus H. Christ", was unable to happen because no one would grant licenses for the use of samples -- Shhh being a reference to being gagged. In many ways it's the same album, cunningly re-recorded to hint at what's missing without crossing the line into outright illegality, and it skewers a number of stars very well. Slap! is the unabashed political album, bookended by the tracks "Ulrike" and "Meinhof." In between are slapstick, verbal jousts, taunts, and music that had its grounding in punk, but was also in love with the new possibilities of techno and electronica. It's the most European album in the Chumba catalog, with headlines for song titles "Chase PC's Flee Attack By Own Dog," and a sense of humor bordering on the absurd at times. It's easy to dismiss Chumbawamba as sloganeers, but listen more than once to this and you'll see there's plenty of thought -- and emotion -- behind their work, and some marvelous, cheeky intelligences at work. ~ Chris Nickson

When Chumbawamba decided to enter the '90s in style, sampling from the likes of Marc Bolan, Paul McCartney, ABBA, and Free for an album called Jesus H. Christ, they found a big wall of rejection -- no publisher would let them use the samples. Their reaction? This album, aptly titled Shhh. There are plenty of dance beats and programming to support tracks that do tend to meander a little bit, without the focus they'd gain in a couple more years. And so tracks like "Big Mouth Strikes Again" and "Happiness Is Just a Chant Away" lose their punch, even with the big choruses (and the latter's mantra of "Harry Roberts" is simply hilarious). At times they've left fairly plain evidence of where they'd intended to put the samples, like ABBA's "Money Money Money" or T. Rex' "Solid Gold Easy Action" -- in fact, spotting the fake sample becomes a fun game to play while listening to this. However, that novelty belittles the politics that lie beneath the music. Chumbawamba is an anarchist collective, and while the bandmembers wear their hearts on their sleeves, they're very thoughtful and clever, leavening the harsh reality of their political views with plenty of pop culture references and humor, some of it self-deprecating. But, to be fair, they're still finding their new voice, having left their punk pasts behind, and the momentum of the dance scene hasn't completely caught up with them yet, so much of the music comes across as tentative rather than forceful, which has the domino effect of diluting their most powerful weapon, the lyrics. So, to cut a long story short, it never quite lives up to its potential (and the samples probably wouldn't have made it much better, frankly). Not their best work, but interesting, and often amusing. ~ Chris Nickson

Additional personnel includes: McFusion, Howard Storey (vocals); Neil Ferguson (guitar, keyboards).

Recorded in March 1992.

Chumbawamba: Boff (vocals, guitar); Mave (vocals, trumpet, bass); Lou (vocals, keyboards); Dunst (vocals, percussion); Alice Nutter, Bert Bacon (vocals).