CD-Charts Position 1
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CSI: Ambleside

by: Half Man Half Biscuit

Release Date April 28, 2008
Nigel Blackwell is one of the funniest and most trenchant lyricists around, who has written some fantastic songs in the past. So it gives me no pleasure to say that the latest offering from HMHB is well below the high standards we've come to expect.

The targets of the Blackwell ire are, on this aibum, mainly predictable and, what's worse, not very funny, "Blue Badge Abuser" and "Totnes Bickering Fair" being particular examples. "King Of Hi-Vis" takes an idea that Stuart Maconie did in a more amusing way in his recent "Pies and Prejudice" book, while "Took Problem Chimp to Ideal Home Show" has a more amusing title than song.

That's not to say everything is poor. In a pop world full of drug related songs, I can't think ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
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Achtung Bono

by: Half Man Half Biscuit

Release Date September 12, 2005
This album is so good I bought the tee shirt.
I agree with the other reviewers that other albums have oddities in them, which though very good, you do tend to skip after a number of times. This is not the case with this album - the first song, Restless Legs is one of the best they have done, along with the third song Where is Chatteris? They even mention the Quantocks in another song (which they walk up wearing Joy Division oven gloves to give you a flavour of the band). The album opens strongly, has a great middle and a great song at the end.
Its this or their first album, Back in the DHSS which I rate as their best. How many other bands could you say that about?
If you like music and have a sense of humour and you haven't bought ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
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Back in the Dhss/the Trumpton Riots Ep

by: Half Man Half Biscuit

Release Date November 03, 2003
I remember hearing a HMHB Peel Session many years ago and enjoyed the lunacy and inventive music. Hearing this album now and I'm reminded of how hard I laughed!

They have always been gloriously amateurish, but full of barmy ideas that (most of the time) they pull off with aplomb. I guarentee you will be unable to get 'Time Flies By...' out of your head and you'll be regularly threatening to tell your friends that you've 'come to read the gas meter'! Enjoy your Biscuits!

CD-Charts Position 4
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Cammell Laird Social Club

by: Half Man Half Biscuit

Release Date September 23, 2002
Half Man Half Biscuit are working-class intellectuals who delight in spearing the pretensions of their two favourite targets - the middle classes (in all their manifestations), and the music industry. Oh, and the general cr*pness of modern life comes in for a sound beating too, just for good measure.

'Cammell Laird Social Club' is probably their most commercial, accessible album to date. For a start, the production budget sounds like it's been doubled and songs like 'She's In Broadstairs' and 'San Antonio Foam Party' are almost conventional rock. Not that this has blunted the Biccies cutting edge mind.

Lyricist Nigel Blackwell possesses the keen eye and sardonic wit of the best satirists or comedians. He has a devilish knack for nailing ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
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Editor's Recommendation

by: Half Man Half Biscuit

Release Date November 22, 2004
The only reason this brilliant recording scores 4 stars instead of 5 is the shortness of it, both in terms of tracks and the length of those tracks. The brilliant Bob Wilson could and should have continued for at least another verse, so good it is!

Other favourites include the Lonnie Donnagan "tribute" New York Skiffle and the country folk of Worried Man Blues. And as far as a HMHB insult goes it gets no better than Vatican Broadside.

This gets played as much as any of their full length albums and is a fantastic addition to any music collection.

CD-Charts Position 6
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Mcintyre Treadmore Davitt

by: Half Man Half Biscuit

Release Date September 22, 2003
Of all Half Man Half Biscuit's albums, I probably play this one the most. 'Everything's AOR' is a great track, but so are 'Let's not','Our Tune' and 'Prag Vec At The Melkweg'. In the latter, listen out for the following lyric: 'would you swap a hundred spandex overcoats, for the mental age of a haversack'. Buy this one, together with 'Editor's recommendations' and 'Some Call It Godcore' and start a Half man addiction.

CD-Charts Position 7
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Trouble Over Bridgwater

by: Half Man Half Biscuit

Release Date April 24, 2000
I think it is sometimes a mistake to get hung up on the humour side of Half Man Half Biscuit and to label them simply as a comedy rock act really does belittle their full range of attractions.

Don't get me wrong, this album is funny, the witty asides and genuinely clever insights into everyday life are fantastically good but let's not forget both the poignant and the accurate elements many of their lyrics contain. For example to describe the efforts a man will go to get and keep an attractive girl by making her "Mathematically Safe" probably is more poetically understandable by one and all than some trumped up, over flowery soppy text.

The lyrics alone though wouldn't be enough to make this a fantastic album. There are some brilliant solid rock tunes ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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Voyage to the Bottom of the Road

by: Half Man Half Biscuit

Release Date July 21, 1997
...Fact: Half Man Half Biscuit are a bit like Marmite. You either love them or you hate them. And like Marmite, many people decide that they hate HMHB without actually bothering to try a taste.
But those people won't be reading this review, so that doesn't matter. What you want to know is, is this album any good?

Oh, it's good all right. Speaking personally, I'd have to disagree with the folks who call it their best album. For me that will always be 'Back Again in the DHSS'. But 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Road' is a real contender, and definitely lives up there with HMHB's better works.
You know the formula by now. Amiable rock with a punk-ish kind of influence, waxing lyrical on life's little absurdities (He Who Would Valium Take, CAMRA Man, ITMA), ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
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Four Lads Who Shook the Wirral

by: Half Man Half Biscuit

Release Date July 06, 1998
Although not having the polish of some of the albums that followed this is still a formidable piece of work.

Containing all the magical ingredients we've come to expect from any HMHB offering, this is jam-packed full of witticisms, belly laughs, nods to other musical influences, cutting insults (Turn a blind eye) and more than a couple political broadsides (Is this new labour Mr Blair? - Old Lady labelled me...etc).

Don't forget their ability to hit a out a good rock tune as well as "Secret Gig" proves and that's leaving aside the singalongs like "Moody Chops" and "Split Single......"

Great stuff.

CD-Charts Position 10
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This Leaden Pall

by: Half Man Half Biscuit

Release Date January 03, 1997
I came to this album late, after hearing Cammell Laird Social Club, Four Lads Who Shook The Wirral, Some Call It Godcore etc. I expected it to be more like the early jangly guitar stuff of Back In The DHSS, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is fully-formed Half Man Half Biscuit, socially aware, biting, musically interesting and lyrically brilliant. (In reply to one of the other reviewers, I think the line is 'like the front of an angler', but let's quibble.)

If you want to hear something different and you like bellyaching laughter, this is the album for you. Buy it, now.