¡Chutzpah! Jnr.
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''¡Chutzpah!'' is the eighth
studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...
by British
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
band
the Wildhearts The Wildhearts are an English Rock music, rock band, formed in 1989 in Newcastle upon Tyne. The band's sound is a mixture of hard rock and melodic pop music, often described in the music press as combining influences as diverse as the Beatl ...
. Recorded at producer Jacob Hansen's studio in
Ribe Ribe () is a town in south-west Jutland, Denmark, with a population of 8,367 (2025). It is the seat of the Diocese of Ribe. Until 1 January 2007, Ribe was the seat of both a surrounding municipality and county. It is now part of the enlarged E ...
,
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
, it was released on 31 August 2009 by Backstage Alliance. The album was the band's final studio release for ten years as well as the last to feature bassist
Scott Sorry Scott Sorry (born Gerard Scott; October 30, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American singer songwriter. Prior to being a solo artist Scott played with The Wildhearts, Sorry and the Sinatras, Amen and briefly Brides of Destruction. Biog ...
, who left in 2012. ''¡Chutzpah!'' reached number 53 on the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...
and was the band's first album since 1997's '' Endless, Nameless'' to top the
UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart The UK Rock & Metal Singles Chart and UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart are record charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company (OCC) to determine the 40 most popular singles and albums in the rock and heavy metal genres. The ...
. As with the band's 2007 self-titled album, ''¡Chutzpah!'' was written collaboratively by all four members of the Wildhearts. The sole
single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...
from the regular edition of the album, "The Only One", features lead vocals by Sorry. A few months after the album's release, the band issued the EP '' ¡Chutzpah! Jnr.'', which features the four bonus tracks from the Japanese edition of ''¡Chutzpah!'', alongside the single "The Snake, the Lion, the Monkey and the Spider" and three previously unreleased songs.


Writing and recording

After releasing the covers album '' Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before, Vol 1.'' in May 2008, the Wildhearts began writing and rehearsing material for an eighth studio album before the end of the year. In February 2009, the band recorded demo versions of several new songs at Seawolf Studios in
Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...
,
Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
with their manager and engineer Virpi Immonen. The recordings from these sessions were later remastered by Dave Draper and released under the title ''The Virpi Demos'' as part of the 10th anniversary reissue of ''¡Chutzpah!''. Recording for the album proper took place in April at Hansen Studios in
Ribe Ribe () is a town in south-west Jutland, Denmark, with a population of 8,367 (2025). It is the seat of the Diocese of Ribe. Until 1 January 2007, Ribe was the seat of both a surrounding municipality and county. It is now part of the enlarged E ...
,
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
with producer Jacob Hansen. Like on 2007's ''
The Wildhearts The Wildhearts are an English Rock music, rock band, formed in 1989 in Newcastle upon Tyne. The band's sound is a mixture of hard rock and melodic pop music, often described in the music press as combining influences as diverse as the Beatl ...
'', the tracks on ''¡Chutzpah!'' were co-written by all four members of the band:
Ginger Wildheart Ginger Wildheart (born David Leslie Walls; 17 December 1964), sometimes known simply as Ginger, is an English rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career as a guitarist in the Quireboys, but is best known as the fo ...
,
CJ Wildheart Christopher Paul Persaud-Jagdhar (born 27 December 1967), known professionally as CJ Wildheart, is an English musician of Guyanese and Seychellois descent. He is a solo artist and also a founding member of the rock band the Wildhearts. He was ...
,
Scott Sorry Scott Sorry (born Gerard Scott; October 30, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American singer songwriter. Prior to being a solo artist Scott played with The Wildhearts, Sorry and the Sinatras, Amen and briefly Brides of Destruction. Biog ...
and Ritch Battersby. In an interview with the website ''Room Thirteen'', Ginger revealed that this was a conscious choice: "It was a band decision to try to take the group to another level. We decided that making decisions should be a democratic process. For far too long I've been making the decisions myself." As part of this new way of working, the band decided "to make something more commercial than usual"; Ginger claimed that he "wanted to make something far less commercial" but was "happy to have been shot down on that idea". It also led to the other band members performing vocals, as they had done for the first time on ''Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before, Vol 1.''


Promotion and release

Ahead of the album's release, the Wildhearts released "The Only One" as the sole
single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...
on digital download from ''¡Chutzpah!'' on 3 August 2009. The song features lead vocals from Sorry, rather than Ginger. A couple of weeks later, non-album track "The Snake, the Lion, the Monkey and the Spider" was also released online. Following the release of ''¡Chutzpah!'' on 31 August, the band embarked on a UK tour between mid-September and early October. More shows in the UK and Europe were added in December. In October, Japanese bonus track "Zeen Requiem" was released as a free download. During the December tour, the Wildhearts released the mini-album '' ¡Chutzpah! Jnr.'', which was initially made available only to attendees at select shows. The next month, the collection – consisting of the Japanese bonus tracks, "The Snake, the Lion, the Monkey and the Spider" and three previously unreleased songs – was released on the band's official online store. In 2019, the Wildhearts released an expanded version of ''¡Chutzpah!'' remastered by Dave Draper, featuring all 18 tracks of each release, alongside bonus discs containing the Seawolf demos and rehearsal recordings.


Reception


Commercial

''¡Chutzpah!'' debuted at number 53 on the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...
. It was the band's first release since '' Endless, Nameless'' in 1997 to top the
UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart The UK Rock & Metal Singles Chart and UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart are record charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company (OCC) to determine the 40 most popular singles and albums in the rock and heavy metal genres. The ...
, as well as reaching number 7 on the UK Independent Albums, number 52 on the
UK Album Downloads Chart The UK Album Downloads Chart is compiled by the Official Charts on behalf of the British music industry. Since July 2015, the chart week runs from Friday to Thursday, with the chart date given as the following Thursday. The chart was introduced i ...
, number 62 on the UK Physical Albums Chart, and number 65 on the
Scottish Albums Chart The Scottish Albums Chart is a chart compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) which is based on how physical and digital sales towards the UK Albums Chart fare in Scotland. The official singles chart for Scotland, the Scottish Singles Chart, ...
.


Critical

Critical response to ''¡Chutzpah!'' was widely positive. ''
Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd (the same company that owns electronic music publication ...
'' gave the album a full rating of five out of five, with reviewer Steve Beebee writing: "''Chutzpah!'' is an album that holds together rather better than any of the Wildhearts' recent work – it sounds like the band have hit on a pristine, expansive sound, and from within that huge canyon the songs have been set free to take flight." Reviewing the album for ''
Rock Sound ''Rock Sound'' is a British magazine that covers rock music. The magazine aims at being more " underground" and less commercial, while also giving coverage to better-known acts. It generally focuses on pop punk, post-hardcore, metalcore, punk, ...
'' magazine, Darren Sadler gave ''Chutzpah!'' an 8/10 rating, writing that "while it isn't the most instant of albums, it's frankly quirky nature makes it all the more excitable", concluding that the album is a "job well and truly done". ''
Record Collector ''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine focussing on rare and collectable records, and the bands who recorded them. It was founded in September 1979 and distributes worldwide. It is promoted as "the world’s leading authority o ...
'' reviewer Ben Hopkins praised ''¡Chutzpah!'' for featuring "some of the band's best material in years", a description for which he highlighted songs such as "The Jackson Whites" and "You Are Proof That Not All Women Are Insane". However, he did suggest that "Not everything here is as fulfilling", describing "The Only One" as "too nice for a band who once sang, 'Baby can't you see I'm shitting brown water?'", and criticising the chorus on "John of Violence" as "so routine that even Feeder would've reconsidered". Eduardio Rivadavia of
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
hailed ''¡Chutzpah!'' as "an increasingly confident return to the band's metallic-sized power pop roots", highlighting "The Only One", "You Are Proof That Not All Women Are Insane", "You Took the Sunshine from New York" and "Mazel Tov Cocktail" (which he described as "a potential all-time classic") in particular. Brian Raftery of ''
Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...
'' magazine praised the album for its "stylistic overhauls" from the band's previous works. In 2009, ''Kerrang!'' included ''¡Chutzpah!'' at number 34 on its list of the 50 best albums of 2009, with writer Sam Law claiming that "you could always expect the unexpected from the irrepressible Geordie rockers ..From slamming opener 'The Jackson Whites' to the cheekily effervescent pop-rock of 'You Are Proof That Not All Women Are Insane', of course, this was still giddily amusing stuff."


Track listings


Original version


Remastered version


Personnel

The Wildhearts *
Ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...
– lead vocals, guitar * CJ – guitar, backing vocals *
Scott Scott may refer to: Places Canada * Scott, Quebec, municipality in the Nouvelle-Beauce regional municipality in Quebec * Scott, Saskatchewan, a town in the Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380 * Rural Municipality of Scott No. 98, Sas ...
– bass, backing vocals, lead vocals on "The Only One" *Ritch – drums Additional personnel *Kim Olesen – keyboards, programming * Jacob Hansen – production, engineering, mixing, mastering *Jeppe Andersson – engineering assistance *Martin Wolf Pagaard – engineering assistance *Virpi Immonen – engineering on ''The Virpi Demos'' *Dave Draper – remastering on the 2019 reissue *Rich Jones – artwork


Charts


''¡Chutzpah! Jnr.''

''¡Chutzpah! Jnr.'' is an
extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...
(EP) by British
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
band
the Wildhearts The Wildhearts are an English Rock music, rock band, formed in 1989 in Newcastle upon Tyne. The band's sound is a mixture of hard rock and melodic pop music, often described in the music press as combining influences as diverse as the Beatl ...
. Released on 2 December 2009 by Backstage Alliance, the album features extra recordings from the sessions for the band's 2009 eighth studio album ''¡Chutzpah!'', recorded in April 2009 at Hansen Studios in
Ribe Ribe () is a town in south-west Jutland, Denmark, with a population of 8,367 (2025). It is the seat of the Diocese of Ribe. Until 1 January 2007, Ribe was the seat of both a surrounding municipality and county. It is now part of the enlarged E ...
,
Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
with producer Jacob Hansen. After originally being made available only to attendees on a European tour, ''¡Chutzpah! Jnr.'' was released online in January 2010. All eight tracks were later featured as part of the 2019 remastered version of ''¡Chutzpah!'', which also included two discs of rehearsals from prior to the album's recording. Track listing


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chutzpah 2009 albums The Wildhearts albums Albums produced by Jacob Hansen