One of the finest songwriters that this country has produced, Chris Pope has released his triple album ‘…But Then Again’ under his Chris Pope & The Chords UK moniker that rounds up the best of his recorded output (plus a few unreleased tracks) from the last 10-years or so. And what do we get? A humongous 44-songs of high quality, that’s what.Starting with a reimagined version of his Chords classic, ‘British Way Of Life’, he takes us from an acoustic start quickly into a meaty retelling of the song – full of passion and ending with an Italian Job quote.
‘Brave New World’ is up next and is a good guitar led song that is very radio friendly. The wonderful ‘Get Me To Saturday Night’ features some great thumping toms and a catchy little riff that should go down really well ‘live’. ‘Love’s Still Here’ slows down the pace and highlights the passion in Chris’ voice; the song having an underlying power to it.
‘White Van Man’ tells the story of the life of the ‘cash-in-the-hand’ van man and long days of toil, with stripped back instrumentation building along with the story. It’s very engaging. Next up is ‘Mutiny On The Thames’ with its ‘There’ll always be an England’ start and brass punch-in. This is a classic that I’m sure you’re all familiar with. ‘One Happy Man’ is another choppy/brassy but catchy number – “Just give me bread and water, put a Gibson in my hand”. And then ‘Hipsters Of London’ with its opening riff and great lyric telling stories of 70s days and hearing tales of the 60s, key changes and all.‘Man On The Northern Line’ is another of Chris’ stories, with the content doing what it says on the tin. Let’s hope it doesn’t trigger anyone about the joys of their daily commute. Next up is ‘Gentrified The Elephant’, a song about areas being regenerated but losing all the soul of what communities used to be about and pushing genuine local people out. It has a great tense guitar riff throughout. ‘Any Fool Knows’ is a bit more bouncy and piano led and had me thinking of early Madness (which is no bad thing). The first disc ends with ‘Analogy Of Life’ – a big song, full of brass, that then goes into a Ska section, with a singalong chorus. Wonderful.
Disc 2 starts with ‘Hey Kids! Come The Revolution’ and its Reggae vibe that develops into something a little harder hitting, almost a bit Glam. A great guitar break and another earworm of a song. ‘Somewhere Beyond The Rainbow’ somehow sounds like it should be on a film soundtrack – lots of damped guitar, singalong chorus and modulations. And bags of energy.
Next up is ‘Twenty First Century Girl’ – if you don’t know this song then you should be deeply ashamed of yourself. This is a big, big song of Ska beats, an infectious chorus, and a feel-good summer vibe. This should have been a massive hit if only we had a music industry that valued and supported talent over the short-term 5-minute cash-in wonders! This great song is followed by ‘Another Thing Coming’, a self-reflective song about dashed dreams. ‘Nine To Five And Me’ starts with thunder and rain and soft, slow piano. The song questions how you can end up falling into a life and end up with a dead-end career as the years pass by before you realise it. And then you’re stuck with it.
‘Indie Disco Friday Night’ is a big favourite of mine. Rolling the clock back 30-years to “Jesus Jones and The Wonder Stuff, Primal Scream and The House of Love”, a time before kids and mortgages. A great fun time song. ‘Eat Sleep Work Repeat’ – enjoy the weekend as it flies by quickly and we’re soon back to the start of the working week again, gives way to ‘Two Weeks In Heaven’, the time of year we all look forward to getting away from the daily grind. Appropriately, it's played in an upbeat and joyous way. ‘Land Of Milk And Honey’ is about how some people are well off whilst others have no future, underpinned by a choppy guitar and insistent riff – “So what’s so funny?” We then have the title track, ‘But Then Again’, that starts slowly and retrospectively before bursting into life. Chris concludes that he is happy, “All things considered” before adding, “But then again…” Disc 2 ends with an acoustic version of the mighty ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ – even in this stripped-down version, the quality of the song just oozes out.
Then it’s time for ‘Veronica Jones’ with its fabulous organ riff and chorus hinting at an Inspiral Carpets kind of sound. Great guitar work too. Love it. ‘Take On Life’ starts with a lovely acoustic chord sequence and Chris’ wonderful vocals and lyrics. The mundaneness of office life and spreadsheets is at the fore. Then the brass comes in and the song goes up a notch. Next up is ‘Three Minute Pop Song’ and, well, it is. Catchy, riffs, fun – and just for you. Drums and a tense sounding riff start ‘One Horse Town’ before the Motown beat comes in for a bouncy chorus.
We are now treated to acoustic versions of the classics that are ‘One More Minute’ and ‘Turn Away Again’ – what can I say other than sublime. And Chris’ voice sounds fantastic.
‘Twenty First Century Blues’ is a groover with another wonderful riff flowing over the song, creating the positivity of REM, The Rembrandts or The B52s at their best. A nice piano riff starts ‘Running On Dreams’ before a buzzsaw guitar riff and chopping rhythm guitar comes in and we have yet another earworm on our hands. ‘Welcome To My World’ is a song that I can really associate with – “I wrote a song to sing to get in the charts, it didn’t sell and it broke my heart”. This is one of my favourite songs on the entire collection and has a great lyric. ‘Before Elvis’ kicks in with drums and bass and sounds different again.The collection then moves onto two ‘live’ tracks from Chris’ previous band Pope (featuring Brett ‘Buddy’ Ascott), being ‘Always Quit While Your Still Ahead’ (with its false ending) and ‘The Last Thing I Ever Do’. Both great songs and performances so a nice addition to this set.
The penultimate track is ‘Making Mountains’ with its female vocal and guitar beginning before the piano takes over along with Chris’ lead vocal. The song builds up with an organ but remains slow paced but full of feeling. The song builds further with a military snare pattern, backing vocals and then a heartfelt lead break. An amazing song – pure class.
Appropriately, the final song of the collection is called ‘Last Man Standing’, complete with yet another wonderful guitar riff played over the bass and drums and Chris’ accomplished vocal performance.
There is so much variety on this album from New Wave to Power Pop to Ska and Reggae, from Rock to Britpop, from Glam to Madchester – and everywhere in between. To write so many songs of such high quality is incredible, but to sing, perform and record them too is quite unique.
If only we had a music industry that did what is said it did (rather than take the short cuts and cash-outs) then Chris Pope would be a highly regarded singer/songwriter/guitarist with the record sales and decades of success that his talent deserves.
Unfortunately, we don’t have such a savvy music industry at our disposal, but thankfully for us (the true music fans) we do have Chris Pope’s ‘…But Then Again’ 3-disc set to enjoy again and again.
