Half Man Half Biscuit Albums (3)
'McIntyre, Treadmore & Davitt'
Release Date 9/22/2003
Tracks 10
Label Probe Plus
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What The Critics Say
Surprising just about everyone by suddenly reuniting in 1990 (minus keyboard player Simon Blackwell), Half Man Half Biscuit released their second proper album the following year and surprised their fan base even more. Gone is the scrappy, Fall-like grind of the band's early sound, replaced by a far more mid-tempo, lower-voltage and slightly folk-rocky vibe, closer to the likes of Lloyd Cole or the Woodentops. The change was enough to turn off those already nostalgic for the brashness of the C-86 era, but closer inspection proved that even though the songs are both slower and longer, that cosmetic change only gave singer/songwriter Nigel Blackwell a broader canvas for his increasingly complex, multi-layered lyrics. By this point in the band's career, Blackwell's lyrical focus is on turning ordinary everyday life into crackpot, surreal poetry through near-obsessive punning and pop culture references, but there's a newfound empathy to songs like "PragVEC at the Melkweg" and "Girlfriend's Finished with Him," mining genuine feeling out of the scenes of unemployed Liverpool life much as Chris Difford managed during Squeeze's heyday. Even more overtly comic tunes like the opening "Outbreak of Vitas Gerulaitis" have a more low-key, reflective quality, due in part to Blackwell's greater facility with memorable melodies. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
'Trouble Over Bridgwater'
Release Date 5/23/2000
Tracks 16
Label Import
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What The Critics Say
A solid leap over 1998's lackluster Four Lads Who Shook the Wirral, Trouble Over Bridgwater kicks out of the gates with one of Nigel Blackwell's all-time greats, a celebration of pop music in all its forms called "Irk the Purists." A call to like what you like whether it's hipster-approved or not, based on the tune of the hymn "Hosanna to the King of Kings" (with a bridge copped from the transcendentally naff 1983 Europop hit "Agadoo" by Black Lace), "Irk the Purists" could well be Half Man Half Biscuit's spiritual theme song. The word spiritual isn't bandied about lightly, for the next track, "Uffington Wassail," continues Blackwell's recent interest in Biblical allusion in the service of his increasingly ornate character studies of village life in the northwest of England. On a more secular level, "Twenty Four Hour Garage People" (interpolating a bit of the folk standard "In the Pines") and "It's Clichéd to Be Cynical at Christmas" are among Blackwell's most effective social commentaries, and his ongoing string of tweaks to the self-obsessed and stylish continues apace with "With Goth on Our Side," the deadpan dance music parody "Nove on the Sly," and the downright evil mockery of "The Ballad of Climie Fisher," a surreal, half-spoken fantasia on the demise of a particularly egregious '80s chart pop duo set to a lovely circular acoustic guitar figure. Overall, an entirely solid addition to Half Man Half Biscuit's later catalog, nearly as good as 2005's outstanding Achtung Bono. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
