MEET THE BUTCHER

“BLOODY NONSENSE.” The Jazz Butcher. Big Time. On the tongue-in-cheek evidence presented here, this arty London quartet has highly ambivalent feelings about being in the music business, and it reconciles that conflict by making pure pop for wiseacres--it’s sort of a joke band, but not quite. A large part of this compilation album (drawing from the group’s three English LPs) is given over to silly songs that are impeccably arranged and produced, performed with a considerable degree of sophistication. Addressing such themes as dentistry, booze and global politics, the songs aren’t trashy enough to be enjoyed once for a laugh and then discarded, nor is this great music that bears repeated listening. But this conflicted profile probably suits Jazz Butcher (due at the Roxy Thursday) just fine; its music is rooted in the kind of quirky intelligence that tends to find massive success deeply disturbing.