Half man Half biscuit: OPO-line

it feels invidious to complain, but fuck it. this album is a bit of a bore. the dropping of parodic elements to their music in favour of fairly strate rockabillly/rock since Trouble Over Bridgewater hasn't been a problem with some a couple of excellent albums - CLSC, CSI: Ambleside, and the other ones have been good, with some excellent songs on. but this latest is very dull. the enjoyable dreary inventiveness of their early albums has been absent for a while. lumpen chantalong rock for the politically insular soft-wing lower league blokes who use irony-so-called to have their cake and eat it.

I, bloody quadhopper, shall be the judge of that ;)

fwiw I thought the last album was excellent and maybe a National Shite Day short of CSI:A

I was kinda disappointed w/ "Achtung Bono"

Excavating Rita MIGHT be NB's best melodic songwriting hour to date

Anyway, Tranmere might get relegated out of the Football League, Nigel will commit suicide and we can all move on

i never particularly liked National Shite Day (preferred Bad Wools for that template), but yes, some v good stuff on the last one - tho nothing to beat the righteous opening quarter on CSI:A. and would be interested to hear what you think of this latest - can't work out whether it's me or them, but i think they're too close to some fans, and not willing as a consequence to be more rebarbative. that could be completely wrong of course, born of watching the live dynamics between them and some fans who obviously follow them everywhere.

yeah I think I erred there - it has a (less lyrically poetic) Shite Day, but no Problem Chimp, no anarchic musical fuckaround that somehow completely works

Is there one on the new one that fulfils the Joyce -> Rita -> ? continuum of sublime ornate-songwriting genius?

The Bain of Constance feels like it should by name, but it's not really that sort of song. Hmm. Just had a quick review of the songs. 'No' i think is the answer.

think Stiperstones was the Problem Chimp on the last one - instead of gleeful chaos we get full-on mental breakdown, everything curdling to mania. Quite appreciate that.

Also, aw :(

Will review, though

Problem Chimp had those awesome rhyming couplets though

HMHB are the sort of band that encourage songwriting archetype trainspotting but maybe they really are changing whatever formula they may have had

Many laugh out loud moments abound.

I went to see them for the first time not too long ago.

Taking a good look around, I'm guessing it was like attending a real ale convention. Cruelly ironic

I wasn't too keen on the last album either tbh, loved "Ambleside"

The Bain of Constance feels like it should by name, but it's not really that sort of song. Hmm. Just had a quick review of the songs. 'No' i think is the answer.

― Fizzles, Wednesday, October 22, 2014 11:27 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Listening now and it's My Outstretched Arms obviously! :D

Almost TOO similar to Rita, but lyrically very strong. HMHB's romance songs are great

The Bain Of Constance, for its part, rips off Magazine's Believe That I Understand something rotten. Bad Nigel!

"Adam Boyle Has Cast Lad Rock Aside" rings very true re things like www.caughtbytheriver.net/

In Fizzle's bucolic vein mentioned above, I am very fond of:

"I wanna fly my biplane
Low over Swaffham
I wanna wave at astonished rustics
I’m gonna plead profitless chicanery"

yeesh, yerright FIzzles, this is pretty boring - will have to listen a few times, see if the lyrics sink in. So far I've only really been impressed with the first two and Arms - it's terribly frontloaded

last two tracks were ok to good

but yeah this is horribly frontloaded

Chipping in to agree violently. A very average record wig some obvious parody and self-parody moments - "as told to the boil on the cab driver's neck" turns up on two albums on the spin, the second time repeated on this with a tired-sounding "again" tacked on - provide a veneer attempting to give he listener the impression there's more, but I think that's all it is; a veneer.

Baguette Dilemma Is supposed to be The Birthday Party, yes? Nigel comes in all hoarse and says "a-whoopin' and a-hollerin' " which I'm certain is a Nick Cave lift, and the bass solo that starts near the end is supposed to be Tracey Pew I'm sure.

At this time of my life I have no need for a HMHB instrumental track.

Speaking of The Birthday Party I only just discovered this the other day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YeqJCcHY4Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRtZDOqSk3A&feature=youtu.be

The entirety of Get Kramer

'OK, Let's pedestrianise the High Street!'