The Wildhearts: Chutzpah!

July 29th, 2009 → 1:01 pm @ mark grainger

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Plastic Jebus (yes, really) is the second track on Chutzpah!, the eighth studio album from North East rock legends the Wildhearts, and it features the slightly worrying line “I’ve been looking for a new direction / find the cheapest way of selling out” – which in the context of the song is an obvious attack on hollow rock bands. Unfortunately it also applies a little too well to the band themselves this time round.

For those who don’t know the story behind the Wildhearts, let me explain: back in the early 90s, the ‘Hearts – led as always by David “Ginger“ Walls – released their debut album Earth Vs. It was a hard-rock record like few before it. For a start it was in possession of a killer British wit which seethed behind Ginger’s lyrics on songs such as Greetings From Shitsville (a homage of sorts to London) and TV Tan, the requiem of the television addled sofa dweller (“thinning, I’m thinning, and insanely grinning / at fools peering out of my TV / try hard to be funny / unfortunately for me they start to entertain me”). For all the rock-star posturing and attitude though, Ginger clearly had an ear for melody, spawning a pop sensibility which resulted the band’s signature sound, riffy verses interspersed with gigantic, catchy choruses.

It was a formula that put the band in good stead throughout all the splits and reformations over the years, and was even still visible in December’s web only single Borderline. Chutzpah! however, is a different story. For all intents and purposes, Chutzpah! is the Wildhearts’ experimental album: out goes Ginger’s sole writing credit, replaced instead by a more democratic direction which sees every band member penning tracks and stepping up to the mic at various points throughout the album. As it did with Weezer’s Red album, this approach yields varied results, often causing the album to segue wildly from style to style throughout its thirty six minute run time.

The majority are pulled off with confidence and competence, as demonstrated by the metal tinged The Jackson Whites, the pop-punk bounce of You Are Proof That Not All Women Are Insane and the vitriolic Mazel Tov Cocktail. The best tracks are obviously those sang predominantly by Ginger, and in fact tracks such as The Only One actively suffer by lacking his rogueish vocal.

There are several missteps however, such as the vocoder on the try-hard title track and the horribly ill-fitting You Took The Sunshine From New York . Discount these flaws however and Chutzpah! is a highly listenable hard rock album, better than the majority of the Kerrang fodder on offer in record stores. Therein however lies the problem.

The plain fact of the matter is that “highly listenable” is a considerable step backwards in terms of quality for the ‘Hearts. Within their own back catalogue, Chutzpah! is arguably the weak link, an effort that, due to its direction lacks several key factors that could have made it great, such as some of the riffs found even on 2007’s self titled album or the more honest lyrics of the past. As it is, sections of Chutzpah! can feel like the work of a band writing rock songs for the sake of it, without the same connection to the subjects or the genre they once had.

A record for those in search of a varied rock album then, but, ultimately, maybe not one for fans of classic Wildhearts.

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