Tubthumper

Sessions for Tubthumper spanned from August 1996 through February 1997 at Woodlands Studio in Castleford, West Yorkshire, England. The album resulted in a stalemate between Chumbawamba and their record label, One Little Indian Records, with the latter rejecting the record in opposition to the group's new sound. The album's title refers to "Someone who stands on a soapbox on the street corner and shouts what's wrong with the world". The cover for the album was designed by Michael Calleia at Industrial Strength Design in New York City. The cover was loosely based on the album cover for the group's 1994 album Anarchy, with the group commenting "the anarchy baby was just being born on Anarchy, and we thought it should be eight months to a year old with a bit of attitude on Tubthumper." ==Composition==

A recurring lyrical theme on Tubthumper is social commentary, in particular class conflict. Tubthumper incorporates a number of musical styles, including synth-pop, hip hop, jungle, and madrigals. The album was noted for its presence of trumpet solos. Music critic Greg Kot likened the album's catchiness to that of the Spice Girls. An album review by Rolling Stone compared the musical style of "Smalltown" to that of British alternative group Everything But the Girl, while deeming the album's overall genre "radio-friendly dance pop". The Los Angeles Times concurred that the album was dance-pop. == Critical reception ==

Tubthumper garnered praise from critics upon its release. Writing for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it a "distinctive" album, concluding that "there's a handful of cuts scattered throughout the record that make the album worthwhile." Entertainment Weeklys Tom Lanham wrote that "social commentary never tasted so sweet" and awarded the album a "B+". Greg Kot, writing for the Chicago Tribune, praised the album and commented that the group "sounds way too smart to be so easily dismissed". He went on to call the album "twice as catchy... and four times as riotously subversive" as the Spice Girls' music. Some critics were more lukewarm in their assessments of the album, however: Rolling Stone's Elisabeth Vincentelli awarded the album 3 stars and opined that the album's lyrics "have traded the brusque directness of yore for oblique pathos", though she did go on to praise "Smalltown" as being "coolly collected" and "Tubthumping" as having "a fist-in-the-air quality that would work equally well at a union rally and in an arena." She concluded that the album "may not enlighten the masses, but it'll make them dance". Music critic Robert Christgau awarded the album a 3-star honourable mention rating and cited "Tubthumping" and "Amnesia" as highlights, with the note "Tub as platform, tub as cornucopia, tub as slop bucket". == Commercial performance ==

Tubthumper was Chumbawamba's most successful album in several respects. It spawned the worldwide hit "Tubthumping", which was a top 10 hit in the US, the UK, Sweden, Norway, and Belgium, and a number 1 hit in Canada, Italy, Ireland, and Australia. The follow-up single, "Amnesia", also proved a commercial success, managing to reach the top 10 in the UK The album became a commercial success. In the United States, it hit number 3 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than 3,200,000 copies, thanks in large part to the success of "Tubthumping;" Canada, where the album reached number 2; and the UK, where the album reached number 19. The album also placed at number 17 on the American tally of top-selling albums of 1997. Tubthumper remains the group's highest-charting album in all three territories; its sales in the US stand at 3,200,000. ==Controversies==

Signing to a major label The group's decision to sign with a major record label caused a huge upheaval in Chumbawamba's fan base, with many of their older fans feeling the band had trivialised all that they had stood for in signing to EMI. The band was targeted by many as being sell-outs and hypocrites, after having been sternly do-it-yourself for their fifteen-year history up until that point. Chumbawamba's decision to sign with a major record label prompted the release of the extended play, Bare Faced Hypocrisy Sells Records – The Anti-Chumbawamba EP, by several of their contemporaries in 1998. The release included contributions from The Chineapple Punks, Riot/Clone, Anxiety Society, Love, Chips & Peace, Oi Polloi, Bus Station Loonies, and Wat Tyler. Its title was inspired by Chumbawamba's debut album Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records. Alice Nutter interview In early 1998, group vocalist Alice Nutter made an appearance on the American television show Politically Incorrect, to promote the album. During the interview, she appeared to encourage fans who were unable to afford Tubthumper to steal it from big chain music stores like HMV and Virgin. Virgin's Vice-President of Marketing issued a statement about the incident, which said that the company did not genuinely believe fans would steal the disc, but that the company wanted to make a statement: "We were one of the earliest supporters of the band...We've been pushing the band since the beginning, and this is the kind of thanks we get?" == Track listing ==

;Notes • "Tubthumping" and "Scapegoat" contain sampled excerpts from the 1996 film Brassed Off, as spoken by Pete Postlethwaite. • "Amnesia" contains sampled excerpts from the television series Rising Damp, as spoken by Richard Beckinsale and Leonard Rossiter, and from a government-produced public service announcement on mad cow disease. • "The Big Issue" contains sampled elements from the composition "Danke Für Diesen Guten Morgen", as written and performed by Martin Gotthard Schneider. • "The Good Ship Lifestyle" contains a sampled excerpt from the BBC Radio 4 Shipping Forecast. • "Mary, Mary" contains a sampled excerpt from the 1993 film Raining Stones. • Material at the end of "Outsider", "Creepy Crawling", and "Scapegoat" is bleeped in the US release. • The piano end of "One by One" fades out in the US release as opposed to cutting abruptly to the interstitial material. • An apparent discrepancy in times for track 6 and 7 on the US CD is due to the coding of track 7 to start at the interstitial material rather than afterward. The US CD seems to have tracks of lengths 4:45 and 5:08, though the printed labelling lists the intended times. ==Personnel==

Credits adapted from album's liner notes. Chumbawamba • Lou Watts – vocals, keyboards • Danbert Nobacon – vocals • Paul Greco – bass • Boff Whalley – guitar, vocals • Jude Abbott – trumpet, vocals • Alice Nutter – vocals • Dunstan Bruce – vocals, percussion • Harry Hamer – drums, programming with: • Neil Ferguson – keyboards, guitars Additional musicians • Chopper – cello on "I Want More" • Michael Cohen – vocal on "Amnesia" • Abbott Sauce Works Band – brass on "Scapegoat" • Geoff Clout – vocals • Kye Coles – vocals on "Thank You" Artwork • Baader-Meinhof – sleeve design • Industrial Strength Design – art direction • Casey Orr – photography Technical • Recorded and mixed at Woodlands Studio, Castleford • Produced and engineered by Chumbawamba and Neil Ferguson == Charts ==

Weekly charts Year-end charts == Certifications ==