Chumbawamba - Un (2004)

1) The Wizard of Menlo Park; 2) Just Desserts; 3) Everything You Know Is Wrong; 4) On eBay; 5) Be with You; 6) When Fine Society Sits Down to Dine; 7) A Man Walks into a Bar; 8) Following You; 9) We Don’t Want to Sing Along; 10) I Did It for Alfie; 11) Rebel Code

First step towards the folk sounds - still the same old Chumba, just more upbeat and with more acoustic guitars.

Key tracks: "The Wizard of Menlo Park", "Just Desserts", "Rebel Code"

Chumbawamba’s “shtick” was that they were always the counterpoint and the opposing force, rebelling against the world and the morons in it in a very obvious, blunt manner (and pulling it off). Their sound changed over the years but the protest songs remained. But if you want to hear what the band sounded like when they were on a more jovial mood, that’s where Un comes in. 

Un is actually a part of Chumbawamba’s slow transition from the slick pop/rock sound they had been most famously utilising into the folk act they’d finish their career as. In a number of ways it’s a contrast to 2002’s Readymades, which was a somber, oft-wistful album that was inspired by old folk songs but intentionally sounded as contemporary as possible, donning a keyboard-heavy production. For Un they went more obvious with the folk influences and switched the synthesizers to acoustic guitars and accordions, eased up on the programmed beats and extensively sampled various folk music recordings and ‘field recordings’ of social gatherings from around the world. It’s arguably the most Chumbawamba have sounded like a band since the early 1990s, but surprisingly that’s not the biggest break Un takes from its parent discography. 

Chumbawamba’s music has always been fueled by their political ethos and, as mentioned before, they’ve always been primarily antagonistic in this regard: spitting venom and throwing punches at all the public figures and political institutions they have deemed to be a nuisance. This started to soften down as they entered their folk phase and began to explore a greater variety of topics, and Un started this trend by completely throwing the band’s usual angle upside down. This time the band are outright celebratory, as the album’s political scope is largely devoted to singing the glories of unsung heroes from bold historic innovators like Edison and Linus Torvalds to a number of fearless everymen who protested in their own inspired ways: Zimbabwean cricketers who donned mourning bands for their country in protest to Mugabe’s reign, an Englishman who decapitated a Thatcher statue, etc. There’s still traces of the band’s traditional selves across the album (“When Fine Society Sits Down to Dine” and “We Don’t Want to Sing Along” are classic Chumba fare tonally) but they’re vastly outnumbered by the band triumphantly singing odes of those who’ve done right. Where things are less personal, the topics are still treated on a more observational basis: on another album songs about censorship and museum looting in the aftermath of a war would probably be laced with accusatory venom, here “Everything You Know Is Wrong” and “On eBay” are surprisingly fun-spirited and at most a little snarky and cheeky. 

The music obviously follows suite in this regard and Un is the most non-ironically upbeat album the band ever did. Major chords, bright melodies and big smiles, both to suit the topics as well as signs of the band genuinely having a fun time in the studio. A few songs (“I Did It for Alfie” and “Following You”) come across borderline twee and adorable; that they’re the two weakest songs on the album is largely coincidental though, no amount of happy-go-lucky strumming can hide fairly average songwriting. The upbeat nature in general suits the band really well: they’ve always been a pop band at heart and it’s actually really nice to hear them being in honest good moods when going for the singalong melodies

Happy Chumbawamba without a trace of hidden intent makes for a unique, and generally a rather good listen. It won’t be anywhere near competing for the title of the band’s best album but thanks to its identity and a number of strong songs, it makes for a great additional entry. If it has a fault is that it’s terribly front-loaded. By not wasting time bringing out its best songs right from the get-go it ensures one heck of a beginning, the superb sunshine singalong “The Wizard of Menlo Park” kicks off a fantastic four-song run which features an incredible amount of instantly memorable (and quotable moments), great grooves (“Just Desserts”), a sense of giddy fun (“Everything You Know Is Wrong”) and, with “On eBay”, a bonafide stomper of an acoustic rock song. But, it also means that Un never reaches those heights ever again, even if things still keep going well. The second half of the album – which calms down in general and becomes a more obviously folk-inspired ride – is also generally a little less exciting than the first and contains the two weakest songs as mentioned above, but at least it ends with a high note. “Rebel Code” brings is a lush, lovely song that serves as the sunset coda for the album and matches the greatness of its beginning. It’s a two-way bridge of sorts: its earnest beauty (and keyboard-like accordion part) harkens back to Readymades, further linking the two albums, but its stripped-down, gentle nature is also a sign of things to come as after this album the band would strip away half its members and turn into a full-on traditional folk group. This is, then, the last of the classic line-up/style Chumba albums, and it makes for a good enough chapter closure. 

A fully personal anecdote as the closing note. When Un was announced, the band’s website offered a free download of a medley of the album’s songs as an audio preview in lieu of just the lead single. The medley was constructed brilliantly: seamless transitions, a musical narrative and arch, a flow that made it an actually fun listen on its own. It took me a couple of years after Un’s release to finally actually obtain it, and in that time the Un medley had become a staple fixture of my mp3 playlists and minidisc mixes – to the point that when transitions of it still creep into my mind when I listen to the album. Un is not a particularly nostalgic album for me in a way that a lot of Chumbawamba’s releases are, but funnily enough fragments of it have that more familiar, memory-tugging effect. It’s kind of amusing really – and I still have the medley mp3 in case I want to relive it. It’s one of my favourite album promotional tools I’ve encountered, and something I wish more album trailers were like.

Rating: 7/10