Half Man Half Biscuit - CSI : Ambleside

  by Maarten Schiethart

published: 7 / 5 / 2008

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Saving money on buying non-organic food is without a doubt the rightful way to fund zoo tickets for the entire family and this notion is just one of the many useful insights rendered on 'CSI: Ambleside', the new Half Man Half Biscuit album. Half Man Half Biscuit once shook the Wirral, plus the rest of the world, and could have made it to 'Top Of The Pops'. But the Birkenhead band's greatest ever claim to fame remains to be that of being the sole band ever to see chart success and to deny the subsequent TV show invitation. No other band has preferred instead to go and see a local football club game. A Tranmere Rovers home game it was. Up there in heaven John Peel would be smirking, as he would be going through a most joyous phase now; checking ahead with new LPs both from the Fall as well as from Half Man Half Biscuit. Thanks to the track '50 Year Old' and the wisdom it portrayed, the Fall already knew how to grab hold of the elderly share of the market. Thus leaving aside, as a blind spot as it were, the CSI Ambleside region. It's where Nigel Blackwell's dry wit can be called up under the red button and the sarcasm comes free of charge. Ambleside functions as a mere reference point to the places that comprise the Half Man Half Biscuit Universe. Random, anecdotal evidence as it were notwithstanding, the band touch on deeper truths. 'National Shite Day' refers to misplaced British pride just as much as 'Fat Children' did on the probably equally unsuccessful Jarvis Cocker album, whilst Gordon Brown would agree to neither of those songs' content. Unwantonly 'CSI: Ambleside' has the mark of a turning point. Quintessentially English, with ideas for songs deriving from newspaper clippings as he has done in the past, Nigel now also aims his guns at the world of the world wide web with for example 'Bad Losers on Yahoo Chess'. Almost unnoticedly the band developed into the tightest pubrock machine presently around, one that can easily give the Wedding Present a good run for their money. Even further proof of the band's advancement is 'Took Problem Chimp To Ideal Home Show', a song that deals with youth culture and, from it, have incorporated a trick or two. As the chosen subjects of Nigel's words cover such a wide range, the band simply has to follow in his path and on 'CSI: Ambleside' they do so most amazingly.

Track Listing:-

1 Evening of Swing (Has Been Cancelled)
2 Bad Losers on Yahoo! Chess
3 Took Problem Chimp to Ideal Home Show
4 Ode to Joyce
5 Blue Badge Abuser
6 Totnes Bickering Fair
7 King of Hi-vis
8 Lord Hereford's Knob
9 On the 'roids
10 Petty Sessions
11 Little in the Way of Sunshine
12 Give Us Bubblewrap
13 National Shite Day

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Half-Man-Half-Biscuit/52535858893

Label Links:-

http://www.probeplus-store.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/Probe-Plus-Records-282266208481556
http://www.probe-plus.co.uk/

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