Originally published by L.S. Media. March 10th 2010.

After the critical success of 2008’s The Boy Bands Have Won, Chumbawamba have released their 15th studio album entitled A B C D E F G. The album reflects neatly the bands love of folk and the quirkiness that can be found in any social context or mistreatment of the oppressed and the injustice of life and society.

Boff Whalley, Lou Watts, Jude Abbott, Neil Ferguson and Phil Moody have stamped their collective will all over this record and it’s not hard to see why some critics love them, good harmonies abound throughout each song and Boff Whalley’s voice has never been better. Good, biting lyrics especially on the tracks Torturing James Hetfield and the fantastic Dance, Idiot, Dance which features the No Masters Collective and most of all, some wonderful whimsy in the shape of New York Song .

As ever, there doesn’t seem to be a cause that the band won’t add their name too nor indeed bring to the public’s attention through their music. On this album though they have skilfully added a story regarding the medieval church and how in the 11th century they managed to censure some music because of musical dissonance, or rather bizarrely the Devil’s music.

Inside the album there are two definitions of music, the first is by the Oxford English Dictionary which states “Music: The art or science of combining vocal or instrumental sounds to produce beauty of form, harmony and expression of emotion”. The second is “You just pick a chord, go twang, and you’ve got music” by the late great Sid Vicious.

I would add a third; “Listen to Chumbawamba, you‘ll soon understand”.

Ian D. Hall