The Chap - Well Done Europe

New album is up as a stream at the Lo Recordings site. http://lorecordings.com/popup2.php?album=197

Ham is still my favorite thing they've done, but I'm initially thinking this one is an improvement over Mega Breakfast. It's the same Chap, but with a slightly lighter touch maybe?

lol was this album named by dom passantino or

I think they might be the worst band I have heard in the last five years.

i don't get their appeal (at least, as of yet, and i tried with the last disc).

Mega Breakfast was kind of schizo. I'd recommend going back to Ham and checking it out, though. (Or maybe this one, as it's consciously more pop-oriented.)

I'm really loving this album after a few plays. I loved moments of Mega Breakfast especially Fun & Interesting but it was quite hard work overall, this is a lot more poppy and there seems to be no filler.

It took me a while to work out the explosion on the front cover is actually shaped like a bear, nice!

lol Matt DC

imma give this a jolly good listen, chums

nabisco was writing abt this on his blog, kinda made me want to give it a try

Has anyone picked this up from Rough Trade? Kind of curious to know what's on the bonus disc; aside from presumably the Simon Bookish remix of "We Work In Bars," which is already out and great, the RT listing mentions mixes from Hot Chip and Atlas Sound.

I have been playing this a lot over the last few days it's early days but at the moment this is my album of the year. I really love every song.

Not sure if the copy I've ordered has a bonus disc, Amazon say it will take 6 to 11 days to be dispatched. It doesn't seem to be in stock many places.

After one listen I think this is an improvement on Mega Breakfast which really felt too busy (and too clever) to me. I think I still prefer Ham though.

I like the cover.

yeah i don't get it. but i do like the album art.

Just got my Rough Trade order with the bonus disc:

1. Unusual But Nice
2. Meow
3. Campaign Trail (sic)
4. Even Your Friend (Butler & Mouse Pad remix)
5. We Work In Bars (Simon Bookish remix)
6. Even Your Friend (Teengirl Fantasy remix)
7. They Have a Name (Atlas Sound remix)
8. Auto Where To (Vincent Oliver remix)
9. Woop Woop (Hot Chip remix)

"Meow" is the bonus track from iTunes, the (excellent) Simon Bookish remix is already out as the b-side to the "We Work In Bars" single (download only I think) and the last two are from the "The Chop" 12" from a couple years ago.

er, "Campain Trail". thus the (sic)

Is that bonus CD exclusively with Rough trade orders? I'm still waiting for my copy to come from Amazon.

I really can't stop listening to it, it's by far my favourite album they've done.

Rough Trade only, sorry to say. I'd be happy to upload it later tonight once I've gotten back home and got it ripped. Can't wait to hear what the Atlas Sound mix is like, even if I wish he'd tackled "Now Woel" instead.

On a side note, what's up with so many new CD albums coming in those awful little pseudo-LP folder things? Both the Chap disc and the Bob Blank comp I got with it (I'm a sucker for RT's extra discs) are in them.

First listen here, pretty great! Simon Bookish doing a remix makes TOTAL sense.

Rough Trade only, sorry to say. I'd be happy to upload it later tonight once I've gotten back home and got it ripped. Can't wait to hear what the Atlas Sound mix is like, even if I wish he'd tackled "Now Woel" instead.

― a black white asian pine ghost who is fake (Telephone thing)

That would be great, thanks! I'm really interested in hearing anything else I can by them at the moment especially a Hot Chip remix.

I like this. Reminds me of Field Music a bit.

http://www.zshare.net/download/76952101064670f2/

really digging this

Oh good. I meant to mention it to you, n/a, as something I thought you would like.

Oh look, people are paying attention this time around! Am excited, of course.

nabisco was writing abt this on his blog, kinda made me want to give it a try

― just sayin, Monday, May 31, 2010 2:59 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

so my recommendations aren't enough huh ;-)

I never saw your recommendations!

I've bigged this band for a while. Longer than Matt DC's been slagging them off, anyway.

Love this. Not quite up there w/ 'Mega Breakfast' yet, but very positive on it after a few listens.

xp You've "bigged" them? Well done, Europe.

The Chap have kind of a radar issue, I think -- I sat around for way too long enjoying "I Am Oozing Emotion" and thinking they didn't have anything else out. I remember actively searching, and somehow coming up with nothing! It's like they were hiding from me.

This might work out for them, actually: I think the new one is better (and if not better, surely more accessible) than the others, so right now is not a bad time for people/critics to suddenly get wind of them.

lol @ jaymc zing, am smarting a little from that

also nabisco they have been very obscure even in this country so why they'd have US acclaim is beyond me - am very glad you have fastened onto them, of course!

is there an equivalent unknown-UK-art-indie band that suddenly started doing ok in the States 4 or so albums into their career?

well hold up, the Chap have not yet "started doing ok in the states!" ... and of course the radar issue I'm talking about isn't so much about acclaim, it's that I knew I liked this band and yet somehow managed to avoid ever learning that they had, like, LPs I could acquire.

I guess I'm projecting into the next few months as to how widespread the band's name can become in the USA. Mobilise!

I just wish I could have a version of The Chap that is the same band but without that particular sense of humour. It's a weirdly British sense of humour I'm not sure I like or get, and there is this weird British tradition of corniness that includes the lightweight cerebral whimsy of Frazier Chorus, early Wire—a band who had a cornier sense of humour than people are willing to admit because they basically kicked ass—and all the way back to the corny, cerebral, but cool musicianship of Soft Machine or something. Is there a name for this stuff?

i am oozing emotion is still classik

pretty good

I like this album a lot but it's front-loaded, I often get what I need from the first three or four songs and then zone out to the rest of it. The rest of it isn't bad, just doesn't measure up to "Even Your Friend" or "We Work in Bars" which are the highlights.

Can't really figure out who they sound like. Who else does dry British pop with random sound effects?

So following on from We Are The Best (The Chap's Best Of) there is a new album next month called We Are Nobody.

Previews here,

http://www.7digital.com/artists/the-chap/we-are-nobody/

I Still play Well Done Europe a lot so looking forward to this. I read on their website they were losing the irony and making a catchy pop album, sounds interesting.

Based on that description and the clips, I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about this new direction. I still listen to Well Done Europe a lot too and mostly really wish there was more music like that. Still, excited to hear it.

whoa love these weirdos. didn't know they had a best-of.

actually i don't really get them making a "catchy pop album" because their songs, as weird as they are, are already really catchy

samples of the new one sound good but not really that different from what they've been doing

This is was what they said about the new album late last year

BUT, as if all that wasn’t confusing enough, we have also just finished A NEW ALBUM, due for release early next year! Having spent the last ten years dealing in all kinds of semi – humorous referentialism we decided to experiment and make a pop album DEVOID OF IRONY. It’s catchy and simple sounding and we’re loving it! Making it taught us a lot: Mostly, that we will never be REAL SINGERS. But I guess the fact that it has our voices on it rather than a REAL SINGER’S means our music hasn’t lost its Chappyness.

I agree that the clips don't sound that different, the last album in particular was full of pop moments, We Work In Bars being one of the catchiest things they've done.

As for the best of it's not something I need, owning all the albums but it's a good selection of songs. Only complaint is only two tracks from Well Done Europe. Pain Fan should be on there.

1 Auto Where To
2 We Work In Bars
3 (I Am) Oozing Emotion
4 Courage And Modesty
5 I Got Flattened By A Pig Farmer
6 Ethnic Instrument
7 Fun And Interesting
8 Baby I'm Hurt'n
9 Le Theme (2011 Version)
10 Carlos Walter Wendy Stanley
11 Even Your Friend
12 Remember Elvis Rex
13 Woop Woop
14 Proper Rock (Radio Edit)
15 Campain Trail

yeah i ended up getting that, it's good

Too bad they left "Arts Centre" off the compilation.

Anybody go to the london gig last night? It was fun, much chunkier/heavier than I expected, new material is very math.

That's exciting. I loved the last album but was hoping they wouldn't stay in the straight-pop zone too long. pvmic