Urge for Offal
2014 studio album by Half Man Half Biscuit

Urge for Offal is the thirteenth album by UK Wirral-based rock band Half Man Half Biscuit, released 20 October 2014 on Probe Plus Records. The album reached #68 on the UK album chart.
Nigel Blackwell of Half Man Half Biscuit has discussed the album in one of his rare interviews.
The cover art depicts Neil Crossley, the band's bass player, and a ride from an obsolete decommissioned merry-go-round.
Track listing
Critical reception
In an early online review, Jon Bryan rated the album 9.5/10, and wrote:The increased emphasis on guitars means that Urge for Offal is a considerably more accessible album for newcomers to HMHB and that’s no bad thing, as they deserve to finally have recognition as one of the UK’s greatest bands.
In an online review in The Quietus, Luke Slater wrote:Perhaps the least surprising thing about their thirteenth album is the lack of surprises. Urge For Offal does not represent a new or even vaguely modified HMHB. Nor are there any unexpected turns or diversions of musical style. [...] Musically, things continue where 2011's 90 Bisodol (Crimond) left us. It is fundamentally rocky and occasionally loud, with prominent bass aplenty. There are almost all of the elements you would expect to find in a HMHB album.
“Urge for Offal” enters the record as 2014 studio album by Half Man Half Biscuit. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Urge, Offal and studio can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18357413. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2014 and 2011.
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This entry incorporates text from “Urge for Offal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.