Rocktrospectiva: The Cult-Classic "What Does Anything Mean? Basically" Turns 40

Released on 20 May 1985, "What Does Anything Mean? Basically" was the second studio album by the English rock band The Chameleons. It was recorded in January 1985 and released on 20 May 1985 by record label Statik. One single was released from the album "Singing Rule Britannia (While the Walls Close In)".

An essential band post-punk that flirted with gothic sounds if not specifically in lyric imagery. Their vibe was congruent to the dreamy, neo-psychedelia of certain Bauhaus tracks or "Kiss In The Dreamhouse" era Siouxsie and The Banshees; which pointed once again to McGeoch. But this sophomore album disarmed by opening with a brief ambient instrumental, "Silence, Sea And Sky" 

That all changed with dreamlike "Perfume Garden" got underway. The drumming by John Lever was decidedly motorik in style, though the guitars were split between lyrical phrases and an atmospheric haze of sound that in other bands would have been relegated to synths. But with two guitarists they had strings to spare. "Intrigue In Tangiers" lived up to the premise of its title as the song stepped into the spotlight with seashore foley sound effects and gentle acoustic guitars eventually giving way after 45 seconds to the more typical heavier drums and guitars. At least until the point where the acoustics returned with a vengeance and held sway until the song’s finish.

The intensity was further on the more forceful  "Return Of the Roughnecks." The darkly cinematic vibe showed the album at the flashpoint where it went from smouldering to fully aflame. The thunderdrums were pummeling in their motorik fury and the guitars managed to bite even as Mr. Burgess unleashed his full angst on the indignities of the time. 

There were only two singles from this album period and "Singing Rule Brittania (While the Walls Close In)" was a dreamlike swell of guitars as the beat faded in to the intro here. The track coalesced into a paradoxical sound that both surged forward and remained locked in stasis as the rhythm guitar descended on the downbeat and the harmonic guitar rose on an upbeat. Burgess’ bass got space in the mix to step out between these extremes on the middle eight. It sounded more like a deep cut than what one would expect for a single. Perhaps its simplicity of construction led to it being chosen as a single.

Then "On The Beach" sported a stronger, more developed melody while still offering a sound that didn’t stray far from the band’s target of a bruised, world-weary melancholy that still carried the seeds of defiance within. That Burgess managed to have his singing hit rare major keys in the song’s climax was the biggest surprise on this consistent sophomore album.

Critics called the album as a rarity of sophomore albums, something that at once made the band all the more unique in its sound while avoiding a repetition of earlier work an astounding record. others called the album as something with much stronger production underscoring both the band's direct power and the ghostly atmospherics of its icy church keyboards and delay-ridden guitars.

 

 What Does Anything Mean? Basically Track List: 

 

1. Silence, Sea and Sky

2. Perfume Garden

3. Intrigue In Tangiers

4. Return Of The Roughnecks

5. Singing Rule Britannia (While The Walls Close In)

6. On The Beach

7. Looking Inwardly

8. One Flesh

9. Home Is Where The Heart Is

10. P.S. Goodbye

11. In Shreds

12. Nostalgia