Born in the U.K. - Badly Drawn Boy

Track list:

1. Swimming Pool
2. Born in the U.K.
3. Degrees of Separation
4. Welcome to the Overground
5. A Journey From A to B
6. Nothing's Gonna Change Your Mind
7. Promises
8. The Way Things Used to Be
9. Without a Kiss
10. The Long Way Round / Swimming Pool
11. Walk You Home Tonight
12. The Time of Times
13. One Last Dance

Running time: 53 minutes
Released: 2006

As the image to the left suggests, I have the faux-passport edition of this album, an annoyingly sized package that does not fit nicely on my shelves, but does house a second disc (a DVD I've never looked at) and provide a physical object to make still owning the product more of a thing. I got into Badly Drawn Boy after Hour of the Bewilderbeast was Mercury nodded, although I think it may be more correct to say that I got into about 4 tracks, enough for me to have bought more since and not really listen to any of it much. I recognise a few track titles here fondly though, so I don't think it was necessarily that much of a misstep. 

We start with an intro, light piano and a spoken spiel that gives way to an odd little sung song about a swimming pool, for a back garden I guess. It feels longer than its 1 and a half minutes before it gives way to the title track, which interpolates Land of Hope and Glory to start with before becoming a fairly dull and repetitive guitar beat. The vocal is more interesting, and the rhythm of the lyrics is a joy, by far the most interesting thing in the song. I don't much like the final effect because I find the guitar overpowering, and the addition of chimes distracting.

I am finally getting around to another listen, almost 2 weeks after the last. Not quite the first of 2016, but near as damn it on the 14th. I have been a mixture of too busy and distracted by Fallout. Bolt on insufficient sleep, boundary issues and niggling little car tasks and the year hasn't started with me in the best frame of mind. I was all set to waste this evening, too, before a lucky last second goal in Rocket League picked me up, gave me the energy to cook a nice meal and tackle this listen. Degrees of Separation (I had to re-type that four times not to start spearing) is a much more accessible song, more of a melody, a bit of variation in the themes, but it has mostly passed as I bemoaned the beginning of this year. I seem to be sighting almighty alliteration a little tonight. Oh well, smile at the little things, eh? Welcome to the Overground keeps a peppier feel to it, drums and keys meshing nicely. It feels like a feelgood number, uplifting. It also feels... shallow somehow, like there isn't really that much to prop it up. I don't mind that though as it breezes by fast enough.

I get a strange Half Man Half Biscuit feel from the next track, I guess because the lead melody is weirdly whimsical because I lose it fairly quickly as the song progresses, and I find myself getting bored of the little piano loop and a flat-feeling ride. He tries to inject some life here and there, but I find it lacking in heart and, ultimately, in appeal. If that was a low point, we move on to a high. Nothing's Gonna Change Your Mind is the track I remember from this album. It begins as a basic piano ballad, a slightly strained voice over a spare melody. We then get a change up, drums enter and the piano goes from sparse to more energetic. Just a bridge before a return to still fairly ballad-like mode... but its a sign of what is to come. We hit the chorus and there is a gentle, but noticeable impulse and energy to the singing and there is more passion and heart in the next stanza. It never really reaches a proper crescendo, teetering on the edge of bombast, held back, reserved, but hinting at a good idea, a solid heart... its just a very pleasant tune, despite never quite reaching the potential it hints at. I find it fascinating that a tune that disappoints me by not being all it can be nevertheless manages to be a real gem. That gentle energy a loving touch, enough for it to shine. That paragraph is a mess, but seriously - there is just enough promise in the song to help it stand out, even as it fails to deliver on everything it set out.

Gee am I tired. I started this feeling resigned but determined to get back on track. Half way through I am feeling washed out. Part of that might be the uniformity of these tracks. The timbre and tone is generally the same, Gough's voice is slightly one-note and musically the constructions seem to share more than they might. Its all very... wallpapery. Background sound, rather than engaging earworms. Nice rather than good. I think this last one is part of what makes Nothing's Gonna Change Your Mind stand out - its a genuine push towards a great tune, even if it just ends up good. It offers something more than a musical backdrop to some other activity. I am kicking myself, because I seem to have lost a sheet of paper where I had recorded birthdays of extended family. I may be good at some things, but I can't keep birthdays in mind at all, and January is lousy with them. Guess what I am doing this weekend?

These numbers in the heart of the album are longer and it feels it. Not massively so, but enough to notice. I have reached the lower key Without a Kiss. I rather like the chorus of this, where the piano actually shows some development, but the verses basically have a loop accompaniment and it is too obvious to enjoy. An attempt at pattern breaking also doesn't work, the odd jaunty rhythm - a heartbeat effect? - feeling at odds with the overall tone of the song as it becomes more evident. The whole song suffers for it, but it does have the bonus of making the opening of the next track seem pretty darn good. It is light and cheesy - almost muzak like in some senses, the brass has a cheesy, lounging edge to it - and more positive which is welcome. It is still wallpaper music but it is pitched at the right tone for me now. Slightly subdued, but definitely more happy than sad. Until the Swimming Pool reprise, at least. Could do without that.

My mind is definitely starting to wander; I am out of the habit of this and it is proving hard to keep focus. The radio-bland nature of the compositions here probably doesn't help that. The sounds are perfectly enjoyable, but they feel perfunctory and rote rather than played with passion to my ear - mostly because the repetition of the loops is just a little too front and centre. If those loops were slightly weaker and didn't stand out from the backing so clearly I might not have picked up on just how much the songs rely on them. There is nothing wrong with a little repetition, but here the variations are too soft, relegated to the background so, rather than support a tune that weaves around their framework, the repeated hooks become the tracks. The melodies that one would normally follow to break up the cycle are hidden, inaccessible. They are there if you lean in, look for them, but they go missing too easily behind the din.

I am more positive about the final track. Some bum notes here and there it seems, but the cadence of the vocal is back to its best. The drums are still a little too strong for my taste and... actually no. 3 minutes in the structure of this tune has got to me too. I think I have no patience tonight, and my ear seems to be latching onto the worst things in each track. Ugh - I don't like being this negative; I don't think it is wholly deserved. I think I need to give this album another chance, but I am not about to do a repeat listen, so I will settle on leaving the tracks in my library for the time being. Another mess at the start of 2016; they are stacking up.

Achtung Bono - Half Man Half Biscuit

Track list:

1. Restless Legs
2. Corgi Registered Friends
3. For What Is Chatteris...
4. Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo
5. Surging Out Of Convalescence
6. Upon Westminster Bridge
7. Joy Division Oven Gloves
8. Mate Of The Bloke
9. Asparagus Next Left
10. Depressed Beyond Tablets
11. Bogus Official
12. Letters Sent
13. Twydale's Lament
14. We Built This Village On A Trad. Arr. Tune

Running time: 40 minutes
Released: 2005

I think I wrote way back that I really ought to pick up more Half Man Half Biscuit records; I didn't until Boxing Day this year when, spurred on by a couple of random plays of HMHB songs in the days before Christmas, I finally found the impetus to do so. I failed to fit a listen in yesterday because I was board gaming all day, so had a shuffle on in the background instead. However as England have polished off South Africa early today I can fit this in this morning.

I have not listened to any of these songs before, really... voyage of discovery, but I have an idea of what I am in for. Amusing lyrics and simple but catchy tunes, short and sweet. I was not expecting a (disgraced monster) Rolf Harris reference though. The problem with listening to this for the first time whilst writing a post is... well, to appreciate HMHB you really need to be free to hear the words. Add to that the short over and done nature of their tunes - packing 14 into 40 minutes here - there isn't really much spare time to comment. Or if you do comment, you are missing much of the point. That being the case, and sticking to generalisms, they manage to pack an awful lot into each track. There isn't much empty space - if you have much of a stretch of music with no lyrics you have a longer track than the usual. And in context that still means sub 4 minutes.

Musically, the simple little rolls pretty much exist purely to support the rhythm of the lyrics and as such the two dovetail really well. Execution is proficient not masterful and the heavily (natural) accented vocal is a breath of fresh air, even if the singing is not the most musical you'll hear. Style varies from ballad-like ditties to punkier numbers and tone from jovial to pissed off so all in all it is a pretty varied ride. I am 5 tracks in now, and Surging Out of Convalescence is probably the most musical of them so far, it has a bit more body to it, it builds a little more, interplay between the guitars and drums adds a dimension lacking from earlier tracks, even if what it builds to is repeated loops. It is really hard to dislike this, it feels like music made with a giant smile on their faces one way or another, which lends it a charm that carries it past whatever deficiencies are present.

Cheery lines about wanting to shoot other bands aside, the funniest part of Upon Westminster Bridge is a reimagining of Partridge in a Pear Tree that works surprisingly well. We are almost half way. It feels as though the listen has been going for longer than that but in a good way. Rather than dragging, the density of the tunes means each gives the impression of a couple of minutes longer than they are and rattling through many of them means by the end it may feel like a double album! I am not so taken by Joy Division Oven Gloves, love the title but the actual song is basically nonsense rather than a comprehensible tale of some kind. The offbeat stories are the best bits of HMHB so when they present random strings of things instead the veneer chips off and the limitations of their structure becomes much clearer. The stories often make no sense, so out there can they be, but they are almost guaranteed to raise some kind of smile.

The flip-flop from ambling to crashing, ditty to punk, and back is a nice way of getting you on side too - injecting energy now and again and preventing the parade of comedy songs from becoming too samey and trite.

I have reached Letters Sent. This seems to be a nice song composed of concatenated open letters to various recipients, the joins apparent in context but not explicit. It begins as an acoustic trill, then goes electric, but this doesn't (as I would have expected) coincide with the letters becoming more vitriolic; missed a trick there perhaps. Vitriol is certainly present in Twydale's Lament, though it fizzles before the end of the song and I get the feeling the album is petering out.

The final track title is genius, or at least I think it is knowing and amusing both. The track itself a simple little number and probably a very fair example of a Half Man Half Biscuit song. Little light melody, solid repeating hook, smile-inducing lyrics, a bit of chanted harmony. A fine ending rather than the damp squib Twydale promised. I need to listen to this more to get a sense for most of the lyrics, but I am already glad I picked it up.

Bone Machine - Tom Waits

Track list:

1. Earth Died Screaming
2. Dirt in the Ground
3. Such a Scream
4. All Stripped Down
5. Who Are You
6. The Ocean Doesn't Want Me
7. Jesus Gonna Be Here
8. A Little Rain
9. In the Colosseum
10. Goin' Out West
11. Murder in the Red Barn
12. Black Wings
13. Whistle Down the Wind
14. I Don't Wanna Grow Up
15. Let Me Get Up on It
16. That Feel

Running time: 53 minutes
Released: 1992

Back to Waits now. Unlike Alice and Blood Money I have not listed to a lot of this at any point, only heard the tunes in a shuffle. As a result I don't have a picture of the album going in based on anything more than the title and song names - and that picture is not pretty. Nor is the cover art.

Christmas has been and gone, and I am looking forward to a few days off, at home, where I might get through a number of listens. This being the first. I have been staring at it for a week, not in a Tom Waits mood. To be honest I still am not, but whereas pre-Christmas I could put it off, now I ave no excuses. I wish I did though - this sort of intense darkness is best approached in appropriate mind. Rambling percussion, husky muttered vocal and a wailing chorus make Earth Died Screaming a difficult opening, the only musical sounds arriving at the death. Thankfully Dirt in the ground, whilst maintaining the downtrodden darkness, also keeps the melodic aspects too. A soft piano and sax combo is a very understated but pleasant form, moreso than the strained stylings Waits puts into his voice here.

The shambling piano, so soft as to disappear at times, is really atmospheric and effective. The sax gets wearing, as does the vocal, but although it is limited, the keyboard tune keeps giving enough of a softening edge to make the tune enjoyable. After a short pause to collect the first of my winter sale shopping (2 pairs of jeans, 2 Half Man Half Biscuit CDs and 2 videogames) from a courier it is on with with this show.

Such a Scream confirms that the listen is a trial today. This is, for me, not Waits at his best. I prefer his more maudlin but melodic efforts over this edgy material. I find All Stripped Down to be a title that works on 3 or four levels, but a song that offers me very little. I am grateful that it is 16 tracks in 50 minutes, not 10. The quicker turnaround makes each track less of a trial of patience. I say that as if I hate this; I do not. Its just a bit more intense and dark than I want just now. Thankfully, Waits wanders and Who Are You is a bit more coherent and musical again. The voice and the backing do not quite seem to match up, out of sync in a tiny but charming way, I rather like this one. I can only think it is no co-incidence that Kathleen Brennan is credited as a co-writer on this and Dirt in the Ground, but not the other three I have enjoyed less.

Ah, now this... while creepy is also kinda cool. The Ocean Doesn't Want Me is another What's He Building in There? Odd sounds in the background, percussion leading the ear whilst Tom delivers his message in that ever-distinctive gravelly voice, spoken rather than sung. This is far more effective at building a 'nicely' odd and nasty atmosphere than the broken percussive sounds on earlier tracks and whilst creepier, less arduous to listen to at the same time. This sort of sound is very uniquely Waits, and in the right mood it is glorious; in a post-family come down state as I am today it is wide of the mark. Unlike Alice, or even Blood Money, Bone Machine is failing to have the magic that can make me be in the right mood after the start. I don't think this album quite has the same lightning in a bottle feel to it. From Little Rain we hit another run of co-penned tracks, the first of which does remind me a little of Alice, which I appreciate. This run is not a step away from the percussion and bare-bones structure setup of the album though. In the Colosseum suffers from over-repetition of the title in the lyrics of the chorus and I find it overstays its welcome too - stretching out to almost 5 minutes in total. The length (hardly the longest of tunes ever) is felt because of the reliance on thumps and bangs more than anything else.

Ah, Goin' Out West has a bit more of a groove to it, strong enough that the opening line was almost inaudible actually, and it strikes me as unusual for Waits' voice to be subservient to the music in the way it is here. It still has all the same characteristics, but the recording levels are such that the bassy twang that structures the tune is definitely sharing the stage with the drums, pushing the vocal to the fringes. It creates a really interesting tune - Waits almost his own backing vocalist here, and the space within the piece feels back to front in an attractive way. I like it. The theory that co-writing tempered the more out-there tendencies may still hold, but that it suggested more melody is simply wishful thinking. There is still very little of that here. There are gems here all the same though. I love the opening of Black Wings, with a tempered edge to Waits' vocal - a film montage voice-over quality to it, which suits the music perfectly. I could swear that I've seen this movie... There is a subdued nature to this piece, but a definite quality - for me it is the pick of the album thus far by a mile - so evocative with so little.

Hah, just to put the nail in the coffin of my early-claimed revelation, Whistle Down the Wind is precisely the maudlin songster Waits that I love, in terms of tone at least, and the song is penned on his tod. Disheveled, tumbledown, haggard - the piano in Waits finest moments brings these words to mind. Playing and producing glorious melodies despite its condition, filling spaces and halls that crumble and fester in worlds that are not nice places to be. Rays of light in the darkness of a hopeless world, and all the more magic for it. Maybe I am growing into the right frame of mind for this album just as it is coming to a close, but the second half is far more engaging than the first was. More likely, I think, the songs are more accessible - a bit less percussion, a bit more melody, a bit more to latch on to. The first half was genuinely a bit of a chore, and a couple of the tracks really dragged but it ends strongly in terms of the atmosphere and emotion it produces so I am willing to let it off the hook.

90 Bisodol (Crimond) - Half Man Half Biscuit

Track List:

1. Something's Rotten In The Back Of Iceland
2. RSVP
3. Tommy Walsh's Eco House
4. Joy In Leeuwarden (We Are Ready)
5. Excavating Rita
6. Fun Day In The Park
7. Descent Of The Stiperstones
8. Left Lyrics In The Practice Room
9. L'Enfer C'est Les Autres
10. Fix It So She Dreams Of Me
11. The Coroner's Footnote
12. Rock And Roll Is Full Of Bad Wools

Running time: 38 minutes
Released: 2011

Aha! After a few albums I did not enjoy much, this is pure pleasure.

I cannot recall why I picked this up, whim I think, but I am very glad I did. It has received a fair bit of car-play in the last few years, only coming out in the last couple of months.

The only thing I knew about HMHB before buying it was that the late lamented John Peel  (whose posthumous semi-auto biography I read earlier this year) liked them a lot, as did someone on a forum I frequent.

What I did not know included the talent for amusing stories in song form, wry humour that suits my sense of fun (hence the comedy tag; it is not a comedy album), dark tales delivered in a melodic and accomplished manner. I did not know about celeb references, twee murder ballads, necrophilia, korfball or selfish suicides. The tracks are all rather short but each recounts a scene that is vivid, and imagined to music that is far more tuneful than I had expected.

Yeah, the singing is not the best, but when everything else is so perfectly set up I can look past that easily. Any lyric that includes "jump off the roof of Dignitas" is definitely my sort of thing.

Joy in Leeuwarden (aka the korfball song) is probably the only one I do not really like on the album. It is a little... bland and the rolling guitars do not do it for me enough to cover the slightly dodgy harmonies in the vocal. That, though, is the worst I can say about anything on this disc. It is one of those where you press play then smile until it is done. There is an odd moment in Excavating Rita when I think it morphs into The Trickster (from Radiohead's My Iron Lung E.P.) which I do not remember but otherwise I find myself without too much to say about each track as they pass through, washing over my ears... I just like listening to this more than thinking of something to say about it.

Some of the stories are actually really disturbing, horrifying even. They would be darkly comic but unpleasant if they were not delivered with such wit, charm and with a generally simple, but reasonably accomplished tune set to back them up. This is another reason why I think genre-tagging is meaningless: I could not categorise 90 Bisodol to my satisfaction if my life depended on it. I like that; it shifts around styles and whilst, yes, it is made by white boys with guitars, they are clever about it.

My favourite song on the album is The Coroner's Footnote, no question - the picture painted is complete, vivid and wraps up in a conclusion that might punch depending on your point of view.

At time of writing this is the only HMHB album I own... I should really look up more of their stuff.