Dumbing Up by World Party

Dumbing Up, World Party's fifth album, came out in 2000 on Karl Wallinger's own label, and it turned out to be the last studio record under the name. As ever it's essentially Wallinger's show: the ex-Waterboys songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist had been running World Party mostly on his own since starting it in London in 1985.

The reviews split along a familiar line. NPR praised the melodies and sharp lyrics, The Guardian found the songs tuneful but stubbornly deaf to the last 30 years of pop, and the Washington Post heard Wallinger happily wallowing in vintage sounds again. Guilty as charged, and gladly so: this is warm, melodic, cheerfully old-fashioned rock. "Here Comes the Future" was the single, the album stopped at 64 in the UK, and a 2006 reissue shuffled the running order, swapped two songs for "'Til I Got You" and "I Thought You Were a Spy", and added a DVD of videos. "What Does It Mean Now?" is the track that has kept turning up on the countdowns.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.