The latest edition of this series looks at the 1986 EP which followed Half Man Half Biscuit’s debut album (read the review of that here).
I’ve used the 5-song tracklist as below. You can find these streaming, jumbled onto the end of the Back in the D.H.S.S. album. (As you’ve probably worked out, it’s a bit of a mess trying to trace their early discography due to various re-issues over the years which have re-arranged their original form)
1. The Trumpton Riots
2. Architecture, Morality, Ted and Alice
3. 1966 and All That
4. Albert Hammond Bootleg
5. All I Want for Christmas Is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
I’ve long thought that post-punk is pretty useless as a genre descriptor. It’s become so broadly used as to become meaningless. But whatever post-punk might mean to you, it seems a disservice to give that label to HMHB. Despite this being only their second release, they were already showing a real musical range.
They chop and change genres on, and even within, each track. What unifies their sound is it’s almost crude presentation. It feels live; you can really hear every chug of guitar and every whack of the drum. You can almost make out the fingers scraping along the fret-board searching for the next note.
The title track is a straight punk banger. Documenting an uprising in a fictional village – “Subversion’s in the air, in the shape of flying bricks”. Although, it is slightly let down by the vocals being unusually low in the mix. I don’t mind a bit of lo-fi, but it’s difficult to decipher their lyrics at the best of times; don’t make my task harder.
Across the following tracks there’s synths, fairground melodies, noodly math-rock guitars, and a Soviet folk shanty. It’s then rounded off with some 80’s jangly indie pop, that’s not a million miles off R.E.M. but, you know… a bit weirder. That closing track is one of their signature songs and inspiration of the unofficial HMHB fan uniform (Dukla Prague Away Kit). In their usual style, they take a fairly quirky tale – of Subbuteo and the childhood friend with better toys – and slip some unexpected insight on the end, hinting at the nature of privilege (or maybe I’m just looking too deep again).
Like their debut, I’m still none the wiser on about 50% of the lyrical content (if I’m being generous), but the tunes stand up regardless; Blackwell just has a knack for carving out simple, irresistible hooks amongst the peculiar subject matter.
That lyrical content though, in spite of the humour and sneaky moments of insight, is still my one nagging doubt; and why I’m currently leaning more towards HMHB being good rather than great. The best music can evoke something primal and cathartic, and that’s not quite there so far. It can feel like too much of an intellectual, rather than emotional exercise.
Rating:
Edition 3 looks at 1987 album, Back Again in the D.H.S.S. Read it here.
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