I can already feel that I didn’t give this one its due. I’m feeling pretty shitty right now, and I know that affects how I write these things. I’d say I was also feeling pretty shitty for many of the days I was listening to the band across the last couple weeks, but I think that’s been true of the last 15-20 artists I’ve listened to, so I dunno how much it’s worth noting.
Anyway. I wanted to like Chumbawamba. I really did. Their first handful of albums were weird, were off enough to be so much almost wacky and awesome, but instead they mostly just fell flat for me. I think I appreciate them and what they do, their efforts, but they never quite landed for me. Even once they started to hit their stride with Anarchy, they never became something I actually liked for itself. They got to a point where I could listen and recognize that there was success in a direction that I didn’t enjoy all that much even if I am glad that it’s a direction people are putting in effort, but they didn’t get to a point where I listened and really enjoyed it for me, where it was to my taste.
I think that’s about all I can muster up to say about them, right now. I know I had more thoughts throughout my listening, and I even wrote some of them down elsewhere, but gathering them and cleaning them up is a little bit beyond me right now.
I recognize that they’re neat and that they do what they set out to (I think). There are parts I like. I’m grateful for them for doing what they do. I don’t enjoy listening to the music as much as I wish I did, considering how much I think they are neat in the abstract. That description for sure lines up with a C. Well, a C- in this case, but still.
Chumbawamba complete, now listening to: Madison Cunningham
tunafruitsandwitch 