Album Review: Half Man Half Biscuit - "The Voltarol Years"

 

Maybe the ultimate cult band, it's somewhat reassuring to know that fifteen albums into their career, Wirral indie veterans Half Man Half Biscuit remain their usual scathingly sarcastic selves. With song titles like Tess Of The Dormobiles, Persian Rug Sale At The URC and Token Covid Song, it really couldn't be anyone other than HMHB really.

If there's an overriding theme on The Voltarol Years then, as the album title suggests, it's the onset of middle age and the depressing realisation that death is creeping up on you. The fact that it starts with I'm Getting Buried In The Morning, an ode to a murderer being sent to the electric chair, is telling and the likes of Big Man Up Front, dealing with a hit and run accident, the self-explanatory Beneath This Broken Headstone and the reflective closer Oblong Of Dreams which seems to be talking about a dying man's last moments.

Yet there's still plenty of room for Half Man Half Biscuit's trademark scabrous humour in here - In A Suffolk Ditch is an ode to leaving the bodies of Kelvin McKenzie and Nicholas Witchell in sacks in the aforementioned location while Midnight Mass Murder is an ode to lower league football akin to the classic Friday Night And The Gates Are Low.

With Mark E Smith sadly now no longer with us, it's good to see the north west's other infamous group of veteran indie curmudgeons still going strong and The Voltarol Years is proof that despite the fixation on more morbid topics, they've still got plenty of life left in them. A good album for both long time fans and those who are just getting started on their voyage of discovery of this rather awesome and unique band.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑 (8/10)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Album Review: Diablofurs - "Neon Satellites"

Image
  Diablofurs have previously shared a split release with the very under-rated Deadcuts (RIP) and feature at least one ex-member of semi-legendary "we were the Manics before the Manics" Coventry indie-punks Birdland so the initial omens for this release were pretty promising. Put any thoughts of the scuzzier end of early '90s alternative music out of your mind though because on this evidence, Diablofurs appear to have set their controls for a good decade earlier with a full on power-pop/new wave sound. The opening duo of Chase The Beat  and Everybody's Dreamin'  come on like Parallel Lines  era Blondie being fronted by Gary Numan and it's not an unpleasant sound at all. The album continues on the early '80s vein throughout with the title track coming on like Tubeway Army going pop while the epic Obsession/Meteors  is probably the closest thing stylistically to Birdland on here but the bubbling synths certainly mark it as being a new evolved version of the s
Read more

Album Review: Dead Sheeran - "A National Disgrace"

Image
  "I saw a clip of Boris Johnson on the news the other day/Made me wanna punch the screen, the man's a fuckin' disgrace!" . Now there's an opening line for you. Dead Sheeran (aka Paul Catten) first came to our attention recently with his self-titled EP recorded in the first lockdown which was a sheer howl of frustration at lockdown society and the state of Britain in 2020 and as opening number Can Things Get Any Worse?  demonstrates here, the intervening six months or very much haven't seen him mellow. In an era where we've had several bands who've tried the "electro rock 'n' roll with a social conscience" schtick (Sleaford Mods, Idles, Fontaines DC), most have come frustratingly close to putting out a good album but not quite pulled it off. However, the lack of pretentiousness and sheer vitriol here sees Dead Sheeran properly nailing the formula and A National Disgrace  might just the most damning inditement of the sorry state this s
Read more

Garbage Days Revisited #15 (part 1): Michael Monroe - "Whatcha Want?" (2002)

Image
  "Some self-proclaimed selfish hypocrites lay down their laws and rules to make ya think there's gonna be some great reward for all your suffering some day soon"  - Michael Monroe  - Right Here Right Now As you might have guessed from the title, this week's Garbage Days Revisited is a two-parter dealing with Michael Monroe and Hanoi Rocks. As well as being one of my favourite bands, they're also a bit of an oddity in that there were two albums released in 2002, one the group's first reunion album and the other Monroe's final solo album for almost a decade, that probably had an equal share in drawing me into being a fan. So today we'll deal with the latter of these and tomorrow the former. Got that? Okay, good, let's do this. Similar to the Clash, I think it was probably through the Manic Street Preachers that I first became aware of Hanoi Rocks as Nicky Wire would go on to anyone who'd listen about what a huge influence they were on the early
Read more