This Time, Chumbawamba’s Message Is Clear

*** CHUMBAWAMBA

“WYSIWYG (What You See

Is What You Get)�

Republic/Universal

That Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping� was a sad portrait of U.K. pub habitues’ defiance in the face of empty lives was lost on most Americans, who embraced it as a macho anthem and drinking song and made it one of the biggest hits of 1998.

This veteran anarchist musical collective isn’t taking any chance of that happening again.

There’s not a likely anthem to be found here, which isn’t to say there aren’t some great tunes, catchy choruses and accomplished pop craft. It’s here in abundance, with the versatile band’s repertoire of coed vocals and polished pop stylings spiked with intriguing drop-in dialogue to link the songs.

It all serves an unmistakably unflattering tour through the cul-de-sacs of American materialism. “She’s Got All the Friends� is a bouncy sing-along; “Jesus in Vegas� flashes like neon on the Strip; and “Shake Baby Shake� is smoothly groovy. That’s veneer, though, revealing condemnations of hollow celebrity worship and media dependence and, as the closing song title puts it, the very “Dumbing Down� that led to the message not getting through last time. Not exactly the stuff of Top 40 hits.

Chumbawamba isn’t any subtler with its rhetoric than Rage Against the Machine. But, as with English ancestors the Clash and Leeds mates the Mekons, the settings win with nuance--the music is here to illustrate the points, not merely hammer them home.

*

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