Escape from Rubbish Island is the fifth studio album by English rock band the Wonder Stuff, released on 27 September 2004, through the IRL record label.

Frontman Miles Hunt began making drum loops in his home studio, and his flatmate, former Radical Dance Faction member Mark McCarthy, added bass over them.

Escape from Rubbish Island received generally favourable reviews from critics, some of whom were mixed on Hunt's lyrics, but were receptive to the music.

The Wonder Stuff, with the addition of former violinist / banjo player Martin Bell, and new members Stuart Quinell and Pete Whittaker, reunited for a show in 2000, initially as a one-off.

[1] Hunt wrote new songs in a home studio that he had built in London with Radical Dance Faction member Mark McCarthy, who played bass, in 2003.

[5] The opening track, "Escape from Rubbish Island", lambasts modern England before becoming introspective, and is followed by "Bile Chant", which features flamenco guitar.

[13] "Better Get Ready for a Fist Fight" was released as a single on 11 October 2004, with "Apple of My Eye" and "Safety Pin Stuck in My Heart" as extra tracks.

[12][14] "Bile Chant" and "Escape from Rubbish Island" were released as a joint single on 21 February 2005, with remixes of both songs as extra tracks.

Escape from Rubbish Island was released in the US in March 2005; as Hunt was unhappy with some of the original mixes, he altered a few of them and had Treece add new guitar parts to some of the tracks.

"[7] He added that the album "may be littered with a couple of disposable songs ... but with irresistibly melodic, attitudinal numbers like 'Back to Work' and 'Another Comic Tragedy', the Wonder Stuff still manage to say it all with their moniker.

"[7] Elizabeth Halvorsen of mxdwn felt that the album was "nothing much to write home about" as the "instrumentals drone on, the same rhythm, riff, or 3 bar melody being repeated too often with no deviation".

Stylus Magazine's Bjorn Randolph highlighted Hunt's lyrics: "He's clearly got a hard case of the older/wisers, and the gleeful misanthropy of the classic Stuffies has been replaced with a wistful air, filled with regrets, coulda-beens and shoulda-beens.

"[6] Chart Attack writer David Missio said that a few people "will enjoy Escape From Rubbish Island's Bon Jovi/John Mellencamp sound", though the "brash lyrics" make it fall "much too flat to be a successful comeback album".