An email forwarded from our esteemed leader here at IBWM HQ. "Take at look at this will you?" Some weeks later, this writer did.

What was attached was a stream of the new LP from multi-national band The Chap. The Show Must Go is their sixth long-player, but I'll be honest and admit that the first five passed me by. Shame really, as this one is quite excellent. Bloc Party-esque, they sample themselves to create the sound which really is something else.

A press release along with the album explains that "after the immense futuristic irony of naming their 4th album "Well Done Europe" in 2010, The Chap Eurogroup choose to do "here and now" by tackling the political in rock music with the release of their 6th album "The Show Must Go" - a diatribe on the absolute certainty that rock music has not and will never ever change the world. It's the sound of despair in the face of awesome idiocy. Or, as the band put it: “In the midst of events that deeply affect our family and friends, we are united in the realisation: you can take Democracy out of Europe, but you can still tour Europe. Fuck you, Europe. We are The Chap, we are Europe.
It's tough writing political lyrics without sounding stupid. But it worked, particularly once the words were integrated in the music. There is a song with an Eastern European sounding guitar melody and some metal chugging in which children demand to be made market-ready (“Student experience”). One really messy song is about drone metal and drone warfare (“Epic tolerance”). There is a song with a big riff and shouty vocals instructing Greece to stay in the Eurozone (“Post doom doom”), there is also a one-minute surf rock tune about giving to charity (“Charitable action”). There is a Marxist suicide song (“He'd rather die...”); there is the first single  “Jammer”, a song whose vocals consist only of wordless whining; some lyrics about working in an Amazon warehouse (“Partly people”), and, of course, the lead single, “Guitar messiah”, a catchy Indie/Psychrock tune expressing longing for, well, a guitar messiah."

And it's Guitar Messiah we feature here.

The Show Must Go is out now on Lo Recordings who will happily sell you a copy. We recommend that you do that. Find The Chap on Twitter @chapmusic