As a rule, you'd have to say it was either a very brave or a very stupid man who'd let his press release describe his band's new album as offering "no departure whatsoever from their rather formulaic brand of tuneless caterwaul". However, as we all know by now, Birkenhead's finest HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT and their inspired leader Nigel Blackwell really couldn't give a flying one for convention, let alone anything resembling a normal career path.
It's the main reason why 11 albums in (yes, really!) they continue to go their own sweet way and have long since damned the torpedoes. And no, the typically daffily-titled 'CSI: Ambleside' (hang on, I've been there on a Saturday night and it can kick off, y'know!) probably won't win many converts outside their confirmed, but seriously committed circle of ardent supporters.
No matter, because if you're among the smitten throng (and I certainly am) you'll be delighted once again, for 'CSI' pretty much takes up where the hard-rockin' thrills of previous album 'Achtung Bono' (2005) left off. Opener 'Evening Of Swing (Has Been Cancelled)' positively hares off the blocks with crunching chords, bustling drums and Neil Crossley diving into some great, Bruce Thomas-style high end stuff on the bass. Nigel's in typically ribald form, too, and before the fisticuffs have died down "Ezekiel punched Dan Brown and the nights are drawing in." As I said, inspired.
Much of what follows splays its' legs and rocks equally enthusiastically, too. 'Bad Losers On Yahoo Chess' is punky and supercharged, has terrace chant choruses a go-go and even rhymes "Rourke's Drift" with "miffed". The drum-heavy 'King of Hi-Vi's' and the eminenently silly 'Give Us Bubble Wrap' have choruses that sear themselves into your brain within seconds and the great pessimist's anthem 'Little In The Way Of Sunshine' finds Ken Hancock regaling us with one of the looniest guitar solos ever.
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This being HMHB, the guffaw-worthy couplets naturally come thick and fast. Favourites this time around include "Paris fashion week caught me off guard/ I was busy with trellising the yard" ('Ode To Joyce'), "I'm gonna feed our children non-organic food and with the money saved take 'em to the zoo" ('Totnes Bickering Fair') and this writer's personal favourite - "to the east Brokeback Mountain/ to the west Benny Hill" - from the fnarr-tastic 'Lord Hereford's Knob': the one place where they break out the acoustics for some scabrous campfire folk this time around.
Yes, of course it can be samey ('Blue Badge Abuser' has more than a lilt of 'Depressed Beyond Tablets' about it, 'Petty Sessions' IS 'Hokey Cokey' down the pizza parlour) and Nigel even jokingly confirms "all of our songs sound the same" on the aforementioned 'Lord Hereford's Knob'. Yet when they pull it all together and attack the closing six-minute rant of 'National Shite Day' with the sort of relish The Stooges lent to their relentless, club-footed riffing on 'Fun House' you're left in no doubt whatsover that you're in the presence of great minds being amused by small things and wrapping up yet another eccentric classic you'd be considerably poorer without.
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