Chumbawamba- Tubthumper
When Chumbawamba--an anarchist musical collective from Leeds--can have a major U.S. hit, this isn't reality--it's more like Utopia. They'd been plugging away in the underground for years, highlighting hypocrisy with wit and releasing a series of brilliant albums before achieving critical mass in 1997. There's the drum & bass ("Smalltown"), and "The Good Ship Lifestyle" where they manage to weld the rhythms seamlessly onto songs. Anything and everything is fair game here, and why not? Chumbawamba have their own voice, and these snapshots of England (Polaroids of Leeds, really) prove that pop and politics can make comfortable bedfellows.--Chris Nickson