Shhh - don't tell anyone but I like this one (Shhh - Chumbawamba)

Member Name: cswann

Product:	Shhh - Chumbawamba
Date:	26/08/01 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Vibrant pop songs with a political edge

Disadvantages: Slightly dated

“Sshh” is the only Chumbawamba album I own.
I'm not sure why, but I never got around to listening to any of the others. Strange really, because I often play this one.

Released in 1992, well before the Leeds-based agitpop band’s major hit “Tubthumping”, this album is the remnants of an aborted album called Jesus H. Christ, which was ultimately not released because of problems over the use of samples. Once you know this, it helps you to make sense of a lot of the songs, and the lyrics especially.
The sleeve notes include copies some of the letters which refused the rights for the band to use various samples.

"Shhh" is an album that really forces me to listen to the lyrics. I’m not usually a lyric person, I can play an album to death and still not know much about what’s being sung.

The album is a name-dropper’s paradise, with more references than I could have believed was possible. There are so many clichés that you lose count.
Whether it’s simply famous names: William Shatner, Roger Waters, Mama Cass and (several times) Jesus Christ, Jeremy Beadle (“a certain Mr Beadle, watching you, watching us…”on “Look! No Strings!”), or fictional references like the Stepford Wives...

And then there’s all the musical references…
The Harry Roberts chant (“Happiness is just a chant away”) is sung to the tune of the Hare Krishna Mantra, that early 1970’s song recorded by the Radha Krishna Temple. Harry Roberts was apparently a real person – a copkiller – when you realise that it sort of gives the song a whole new dimension.
And isn’t that a sample from Abba’s “Money money” (on “Snip Snip Snip”) ?
And there’s also a Sgt Pepper sample in there somewhere (the one with the horses and morning sounds, or that’s what I associate it with, as
I think it introduces Good Morning).

“Shhh” is also chock-full of phrases I recognise from elsewhere “senses working overtime” on “Big Mouth Strikes again” (XTC song)
“Does anybody remember laughter?” (at the end of the opening track “Shhh”) - didn’t Robert Plant sing this as part of Stairway to Heaven – in concert, at least?
“Kick out the jams” (famous MC5 album from 1969) – this quote is at the end of “Stitch that”, and just about the last lyric on the album.

As Chumbawamba sing in “Nothing that’s new” - “Pour me another double cliché” !

In fact, the whole of the song “Nothing that’s new” is about the sampling / musical similarities game - as they say, “You can’t write a song that’s never been sung”.
And how about: “New Kids, Minogue, all those sort of rogues, making money for those scheming little toads”. (from the song “Sometimes plunder”)
As I mentioned earlier, this is essentially the theme of the entire album.

Some of the songs are quite sardonic and obviously political – it came as no surprise to me that “Look no strings” was inspired by a visit to a Christian Bookstore in the US. It’s a sweet, harmonious song, but the lyrics are most definitely on the attack.

“Stitch that” is a reinterpreted folksong – the band state that it was inspired by a version by Martin Carthy.
The album is very varied, in terms of musical style - choral, folk, rap, dance – it’s all in there somewhere. “Stitch that” is a reinterpreted folk song – the band state that it was inspired by a version by Martin Carthy. Credit where credit’s due, eh?

Only downside, for me, is that some of the musical effects sounds a little dated (well, it is al
most ten years old), and there are some lyrics that get on my nerves. For example, the repeated, scratch-effect “Everybody’s great” on “Happiness is just a chant away” – it doesn’t spoil the song for me, I just wish they hadn’t recorded it that way.

As a whole, the album sounds well-produced and very smooth – I like it.

Summary: