Readymades

Political pop is an avenue infrequently explored – who’ll pay to hear Britney Spears sing songs about social injustice and war crime? Actually, I probably would.

Citing punk as an attitude rather than a chord progression, Chumbawamba continue to rock the proverbial vessel with their 11th (yes, 11th) album to date. Readymades is essentially a (self confessed) folk album laced with plain chant/sean nós oddities and a kitsch synthy pop edge. Decidedly less karaoke than the Saturday night beer and Bensons anthem ‘Tubthumping’, the octet’s latest collection is bursting at the seams with polished crescendos, glorious melodies and electro drum beats.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not disco or anything, but there is a certain cheese element, an ironic substance when contrasted with the heady subject matter: social unrest, class injustice, racism, murder, celebrity, child labour, The Great Famine, globalisation and football.

Chumbawamba are a bit like scratch-and-sniff cards in that respect. First glance reveals a pleasant and inoffensive record, but if you claw at the surface a little, it reveals something completely different. Chumbawamba aren’t trying to make jukebox music. They don’t intend to be played on daytime radio or MTV. They are the modern incarnation of punk, cunningly disguised in twee pop clothing.

If soulless, aurally pleasing ditties are your pleasure, then steer well clear. However, if the concept of pop music with bite, substance and character is still plausible to the unpolluted ear, Readymades could well be the best thing you buy all year.

As they say in Jacob’s Ladder, “Nobody wonders because nobody knows”. This is a tubthumper of an entirely different variety.