Chumbawamba
WYSIWYG

THE REVIEW

On the fly DeBaseriani friends, I briefly review this Chumbawamba album, because I learned today (Thursday, October 24th) that the group will be closing its doors after 30 years and a bit of a (not always) honorable career.

Well, I must say that perhaps this is a wise choice: after 2000 I don't find albums capable of shining as in the past. It will be good to conclude and leave it to the private initiative of people to now bear the memory of this group.

Let's get straight to this "What You See Is What You Get" (whose acronym has to do with the field of computing): in 2000 one morning, Tg1 announced with Marco Betello the release of "She's got all the friends" and the anticipation of a great success for the summer (thinking back, I am amazed that a network like Rai talked then about a group like Chumbawamba, if even Vasco Rossi didn’t deserve that much attention).

In Italy, we don't pay much attention to them, and even abroad it seems that after "Tubthumper" things aren't going well.

But what is this album? It is a concept of songs, interspersed with a series of snippets, in which pop culture is targeted, as well as the world of boy bands and politics. The Leeds commune (the Chumba) hopes to see a plane with politicians and famous people like Bono from U2 on board crash (we are in the Jubilee period and of "Cancel the Debt" - proclaimed by Jovanotti at the Sanremo of that year).

"WYSIWYG" is weak compared to the previous work, but it's not poorly made and sounds good. The soundtrack of my summer 2008 (eight years later, I remembered the song "She's got all the friends"!), it includes important tracks like "Celebration, Florida" and the a cappella remake of "New York Mining Disaster 1941" by the Bee Gees, when they weren't yet popular with the falsetto of "Staying alive" (we are in the '60s).

The flaw of the album is that it lacks strength and robustness in the tracks and their cohesion, compared to "Tubthumper" where the songs (also here linked by snippets) appear strong and robust both in structure ("Amnesia" and "Smalltown", for example) and in cohesion itself.

Nonetheless, "WYSIWYG" is one of the albums I have at home to which I am more attached. It's interesting and in its own way engaging, but suited for a performance in venues with a rather small audience.

I'm finished. I give a heartfelt goodbye to Chumbawamba, concluding that the time of "I get knocked down..." and "She's got all the friends..." will always stay with me.

Goodbye