What Does Anything Mean? Basically
What Does Anything Mean? Basically gives the Chameleons’ guitars a larger, more heavily treated setting. Keyboards and layers of delay make the music feel enclosed, but the rhythm section keeps enough strength to push through. Mark Burgess’s voice fits that combination of force and unease. The album is more concerned with immersion than with making every hook obvious straight away.
Silence Sea and Sky opens with a quiet keyboard instrumental. Perfume Garden then supplies the movement and fuller band sound that the introduction holds back. The transition works well: the atmosphere remains, but the arrival of the song gives it a clear direction. The production is part of the writing rather than a separate decoration.
Return of the Roughnecks brings a tougher guitar presence, including a particularly sharp lead passage. Singing Rule Britannia turns its political frustration into something forceful and direct. These songs show how much pressure the band can generate without abandoning its spacious sound. The guitars remain central even when keyboards take up more room.
Intrigue In Tangiers and On The Beach also have real strength beneath their attractive surfaces. Later, Looking Inwardly and One Flesh bring a more urgent movement before the record settles into its final stretch. P.S. Goodbye closes with a quieter, melancholy feeling that makes sense after the surrounding intensity.
The density is also the main drawback. Effects occasionally make the melodies harder to find, and the songs do not always have the immediate impact their writing deserves. That demands some patience. Yet the album’s balance of emotional singing, precise guitar parts and sustained atmosphere remains convincing. What Does Anything Mean? Basically is a rich, purposeful record whose appeal becomes clearer when its layers stop competing for your attention.
