Take Bubble Gum Music Underground

It’s hard entirely to figure whether this is sincere or ironic, but The Zig Zag People Take Bubble Gum Music Underground is still a sign of bubble gum’s pervasiveness. Okay, the helium-voiced chorus on “Indian Giver” does suggest The Zig Zag People might be taking the piss, ever so slightly, as does the song title “Sally Goes to the Dentist,” but elsewhere, the ‘underground’ covers of bubblegum classics like “Simon Says” and “Hanky Panky” are smart and eloquent. Whether through design or accident, they recognise both the sturdiness of the writing and the pliability of the aesthetic.  The result is an album that skirts psychsploitation, but does some creative, playful things with songs that weren’t short on such smarts in their initial incarnation. Not bad for a session and album invented by management heads at Decca Records, with ‘the group’ helicoptered in at the last minute.