The Library Book of the World

Nobacon was a member of Chumbawamba, the anarchist musical collective that became an overnight sensation with “Tubthumping.” On Library Book, he gives us a folk-rock opera that looks at current affairs by channeling the voices of past, present and future humans into scathing, satirical screeds disguised as sea shanties, swamp blues, country dirges and boisterous Irish sing-alongs. The backing tracks by the Pine Valley Cosmonauts sound like Tom Waits sitting in with the Old Crow Medicine Show to produce a dark, clanging, loose-limbed noise sort of like German Cabaret music played in a sawdust-floored honky-tonk on the Saturday night before the apocalypse. Nobacon’s cynical snarl is a perfect vehicle for tunes that blend bitter humor, political insight and general disgruntlement.