This Leaden Pall

This Leaden Pall
Studio album by Half Man Half Biscuit
Released	25 October 1993
Recorded	Bus Stop Studios, Liverpol
Genre	Indie rock
Length	53:14
Label	Probe Plus Probe 36
Producer	Half Man Half Biscuit and Geoff Davies
Half Man Half Biscuit chronology
McIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt (1991) This Leaden Pall (1993) Some Call It Godcore (1995)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

This Leaden Pall is the fifth album by UK rock band Half Man Half Biscuit, released in 1993.

The album cover features a bleak overdeveloped picture of the now demolished Hale Wood pub in Halewood, Merseyside. In 2001 it was voted the 93rd best LP sleeve of all time in Q magazine.^[2]

Anecdotally, lead singer Nigel Blackwell has referred to the album as their Closer.

At the time of its release, NME writer Johnny Cigarettes gave the album a 6/10 review, describing "Running Order Squabble Fest" as "a mini-epic of Spinal Tap proportions" and Blackwell as "the only rival to Vic Reeves in making cultural ephemera unfeasibly funny".^[3] The same publication revisited the album in 1999, with John Robinson stating that it "understood just as much as OK Computer the bravery needed to accomplish modern living".^[4]

Track listing

1. "M-6-ster"
2. "4AD3DCD"
3. "Running Order Squabble Fest"
4. "Whiteness Thy Name Is Meltonian"
5. "This Leaden Pall"
6. "Turned up Clocked on Laid Off"
7. "Improv Workshop Mimeshow Gobshite"
8. "13 Eurogoths Floating in the Dead Sea"
9. "Whit Week Malarkey"
10. "Doreen"
11. "Quality Janitor"
12. "Floreat Inertia"
13. "Malayan Jelutong"
14. "Numanoid Hang-glide"
15. "Footprints"

References

1. Mason, Stewart. This Leaden Pall at AllMusic. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
2. O'Connor, Mickey (19 March 2001). "The 100 best album covers ever". Entertainment Weekly.
3. Cigarettes, Johnny (1993). "Half Man Half Biscuit - This Leaden Pall". NME. 18 December 1993.
4. Robinson, John (1999). "Respect Overdue! Half Man Half Biscuit - This Leaden Pall". NME. 27 February 1999. p. 32.