This is the peak of Audio Python, their most original album as well as the one with the highest proportion of material that hadn't already appeared on the TV show. The original vinyl was unusual in that the second side of the album was pressed with two grooves instead of one, running side by side with each other, so that when you lowered the needle onto the record you never quite knew which version of Side B you were going to hear.
The album is full of high points, including the celebrated F-word version of the 'Cheeseshop' sketch, but perhaps the funniest are the ones that were written specifically for audio; 'Ralph Mellish', about a meek drone who goes to work accompanied by a ludicrously overblown suspense-style commentary which repeatedly draws our attention to the fact that nothing is happening; 'Background to History', an Open University-style programme on medieval farming in which the guest historians mumble like stoned rock stars and their assessments are presented as spot-on musical parodies of Bob Marley, Gary Glitter and Joe Cocker; the bizarre 'Record Shop', which defies description, and 'Novel Writing', in which a packed crowd cheers on Thomas Hardy as he gets 'Return of the Native' underway. Great stuff and very good value for money.
