Which FALL album do you get first?

I started with Witch Trials, and it put me off trying anything further for some time... but that's just me. (I will say that I don't think it's very "characteristic" of their strengths.)

That being said, with the Early Singles 77-79, Totally Wired & 458489 collection, that is pretty much a near equivalent of a very good five disc box set of everything up until Brix left the band. (There is only "Rowche Rumble" that is duplicated and the version on Totally Wired is the live one from live album Totale's Turns.)

Hex Enduction Hour, Slates, Groteseque, The Wonderful & Frightening World..., This Nations Saving Grace; any of these would be a good album to start. I also really like Extricate and The Light User Syndrome quite a bit, but I like most of their records.

You really just want to beware of those oddball slay track compilations that Reciever put out.

A Part of America Therein is not that bad a record, especially if you get it attached along with the pretty much perfect Slates EP.

My personal favorite is Grotesque, so if you go for an album, that is my vote.

That is true.

Even though it and I Am Kurious Orange was about two of the first Fall records I heard, I don't like either much anymore. Code: Selfish, Frenz Experiment & Shift-Work are also a bit spotty.

The rest of their regular studio albums are either pretty good or great. (I still haven't heard Are You Are Missing Winner.)

I didn't add anything new, did I? Drat.

It seems to have a reputation for being difficult, but it's actually a pretty damn rollicking toe-tapping good time.

Actually I can't imagine any right-minded person regretting spending money on anything up to and including Perverted By Language.

honourable mentions to: Totales Turn (It's Now Or Never), Palace of Swords Reversed, Grotesque, Live At The Witch Trials

to start, either totally wired or palace of swords reversed for an early compilation, but my favorite standalone is (predictable) this nation's saving grace. whatever, you'll end up buying more than one.

Or failing that: Grotesque or Slates or Witch Trials. I find "Hex" a trifle turgid, "This Nation's Saving Grace" is great but by that time MES had lost most of his lyrical chops, diminishing returns thereafter.

I don't even know what their best album is. I'm very fond of Perverted By Language and I'm very fond of Shift-Work.

Hex Enduction Hour - Seems to be the favorite record of the fuckfaces (hardcore fall fans.)

Godzone

Godzone

I'll speak up with Marcello and Jed there -- a very good album I haven't properly gotten into enough. Hm, I almost feel a phase coming on...

Extricate is tops as well.

Fall tribute

Also, This Nation's Saving Grace has funny dis records about english people I don't know.

You really can't go wrong with any compilation of early material. The 3 disc Psykick Dance Hall compilation looks to be the most thorough.

I fucking love Extricate, by the way...

Grotesque is also swell, though not quite as swell as PBL methinks.

And The Infotainment Scan is a kut-out klassik from their shortlived Matador days.

"We are The Fall we were spinning we were stepping/ Cop out, cop out as in from heaven"

I started out with A-Sides, and it took me a few months of very sparse listening to finally understand what the big deal was. I would have much rather preferred to have started with Hex Entroduction Hour or Live at the Witch Trials in hindsight, but all roads lead to home.

In brief -- the album, the first two singles ("Bingo-Master's Break-Out!" and "It's the New Thing!"), the "Dresden Dolls" bootleg single, the two tracks from the early Short Circuit Manchester live comp, the first two Peel sessions and a bootleg live show from 1978, not to mention a great liner note essay, slew of rare photos and articles and reviews, reproductions of the various single sleeves, better sound all around than ever (on CD at least)...

I think I got 'Smile - It's The Best Of The Fall!' first actually, which wasn't a bad start. It starts with Smile and has that 'canyerfookin'getittogetherinsteaduhshowinoff, f'CHRIST's sake' version of No Xmas For John Quays.

x-post - cripes, sounds pretty great.

But that LP was so strong track-to-track that I think it WAS a good introduction. It was compelling. I had a similar experience with the Pere Ubu Terminal Tower compilation (also the first record of theirs that I bought).

haha, thanks Ned. I'll be getting this at the first opportunity.

I have to agree on this, it IS a brilliant, excellent introduction. It's hard to find these days, though, totally out of print and has been for years. Not sure what the best currently available equivalent is, probably Totally Wired: The Rough Trade Anthology, also part of this Castle/Sanctuary reissue series (which includes remastered/expanded Dragnet, Grotesque, Totale's Turns, Perverted by Language and apparently some new BBC session collection, let me see here...)

Recommending Grotesque as a starting point doesn't make much sense to me: surely that record would scare newcomers off.

It's hard for me to believe that there was a brief period when I actually hated the Fall. Then This Nation's Saving Grace came out and suddenly it all made sense. I don't think I became a true Fall fanatic, though until I heard Live At The Witch Trials. Ned: Does the reissue include Various Times?

I'll vote for Dragnet and Perverted By Language, as well. But it really doesn't matter much. Get anything from before 1990 and you're pretty much set.

Shucky-darn, how horrible that would be! ;-)

Doing some double checking I see that the Liverpool '78 gig on the Witch Trials reissue is the same as the Liverpool '78 CD which was first released by Smith in 2001 and then reissued in some weird double pack format with another version of Fall in a Hole. Apparently the original tape was found by Smith or a minion on sale in some stall somewhere!

Palace of Swords Reversed was rereleased in 1998...mastered from vinyl, of course.

Ned: Does the reissue include Various Times?

Sure does, I'm listening to it right now!

Slates is one of the grandest, most epic musical documents ever recorded. Not only should it be the first Fall record it quite possibly should be the first record period.

Say! Speaking of the Fall, here's something interesting I just noticed: In the twenty-five years that they've been around, the Fall have never once made the U.S. charts. Crazy.

Never say never...Come to think of it, what was that band that did "Never Say Never"? (searches memory) the girl singer...Romeo Void, that's it.

The first Fall album I bought was Kurious Oranj when it was released. That was a weird starting point since it was so referential to a stage production about which I could find no other information (even to this day). But it had Big New Prinz on it and that was enough to hook me.

I admit I have a slight advantage with this series of reissues in that most of my copies of the early albums came courtesy of CDR burns from Mr. Donut B., when he and I shared the same house. So really they were first time purchases, and with store credit at Amoeba at that.

I agree with that, Kyle about how good do you need early Fall to sound? There were only maybe 2 or 3 records I felt it would be blasphemous for me to own on CD. One was U2's Unforgettable Fire and the other was Fall Live At The Witch Trials. Don't ask me why. I have Dragnet on CD and love it. Who knows why one is partial to certain vinyl records?

But yet I would wecome the '78 live show, so I'm stuck.

I have read that Mark regrets liscensing a lot of those live tapes for release, actually. There have to have been, like, at least twenty if not thirty live Fall CDs in the last...I don't know, eight years or so.

I actually used to respect their approach to live albums: Totale's Turns, In a Hole, A Part of America Therein, Seminal Live.

Yeah, sound quality of the tape definitely starts falling apart. But yes, it works better in context here.

Disappointed with that 2cd tribute comp though that just came out; aside from Jowe Head, Chris Knox and a few other tracks, pretty eh...

I still maintain that 'Grotesque' is amongst their most accessible albums.

And some aren't.

There's not really much you need as far as live releases after that (although A Part of America Therein - 1981 and the one half of Seminal Love isn't terrible, given they are released with decent studio counterparts)

So can't really steer, but if you don't hear it on this collection, you're never gonna period.

So it was "Extricate" that was my first Fall long player. It does hold special meaning in me in having that honour, but somehow (since buying almost their entire back catalogue released beforehand and afterwards) it is possibly my least listened to of all their albums.

"Just buy one you bastards-ah!"

Oh man!

I have to say that my formerly down-in-basement opinion of Rossdale has now risen. But not for his own music.

another contender for the "get this first" crown?

Sanctuary will release a 5xCD Fall retrospective on 27 August. The tracklist was compiled by Conway and is intended as a companion piece to the Peel Sessions box, with similar packaging. The tracklist:

CD1: 1978-1983
1. Bingo-Master's Break-Out!
2. No Xmas For John Quays
3. Rowche Rumble (Take 4)
4. Before The Moon Falls
5. New Puritan
6. City Hobgoblins
7. Totally Wired
8. New Face In Hell
9. The Container Drivers
10. Leave The Capitol
11. Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul
12. The Classical
13. Hip Priest
14. Look, Know
15. Marquis Cha-Cha
16. The Man Whose Head Expanded
17. Wings
18. Smile

CD2: 1984-1989
1. Oh! Brother
2. Lay Of The Land
3. Couldn't Get Ahead
4. Bombast
5. Paintwork
6. L.A.
7. Mr. Pharmacist
8. Dktr. Faustus
9. Shoulder Pads 1#
10. Excerpt From Hey! Luciani Play
11. There's A Ghost In My House
12. Hit The North (Part 4)
13. Guest Informant
14. A Day In The Life
15. Athlete Cured
16. Bremen Nacht (LP Version)
17. Big New Prinz
18. Dead Beat Descendant

CD3: 1990-1997
1. Telephone Thing (Alternate Version)
2. Bill Is Dead
3. Arms Control Poseur (Single Version)
4. Theme From ERROR-ORRORI
5. The Re-Mixer
6. Free Range (Single Version)
7. Ed's Babe
8. Arid Al's Dream
9. Glam Racket
10. A Past Gone Mad (Alternate Version)
11. Behind The Counter (Single Version)
12. M5 (Single Version)
13. The Joke
14. Noel's Chemical Effluence
15. Plug Myself In (7" Nero Mix) (D.O.S.E. feat. Mark E Smith)
16. He Pep!
17. Inch (Inch feat. Mark E Smith)
18. Recipe For Fascism
19. Ten Houses Of Eve (Remix)
20. Calendar

CD4: 1998-2007
1. The Horror In Clay (Mark E Smith)
2. Touch Sensitive (Dance Mix)
3. Shake-Off
4. Tom Raggazzi
5. Two Librans (Demo)
6. Dr. Bucks' Letter
7. Distilled Mug Art
8. Pander! Panda! Panzer! (Excerpt) (Mark E Smith)
9. Susan vs Youthclub (Remix)
10. Mike's Love Xexagon (Alternate Version)
11. Last Commands Of Xyralothep Via MES
12. (We Are) Mod Mock Goth
13. Portugal
14. Theme From Sparta F.C. #2
15. I Can Hear The Grass Grow (Slow Version)
16. Blindness (Alternate Version)
17. Fall Sound (Alternate Version)

CD5: Live Rarities
1. Hey! Fascist
2. Brand New Cadillac
3. My Condition
4. Pop Stickers
5. Session Musician
6. Middle Mass Explanation
7. I'm Into C.B. (Stars On 45 Version)
8. C'n'C-Black Night
9. Perverted By Language
10. He Talks
11. Hey! Marc Riley
12. Countdown
13. Race With The Devil
14. Tunnel
15. Interferance
16. Jet Boy
17. Walk Like A Man
18. The Boss

It's true that if an ambitious n00b had the money to blow, this and the Peel Sessions would be enough to chew on for several years. This is a nice selection.

Some impossible to find B-sides salted in on CD3 too, which makes me hope it will be on iTunes for cherry-picking.

Very nice comp! Although disc 4 sort of shows how much they have fallen off the past few years.

Roughly equal space chronologically = not by any means a "Best of". But interesting, I guess.

More Fall repackaging crap. Horrible track selection.

Yeah, no way a newbie should start with that box, or even the Peel box. If you want to stick your toe in, start with _8489 A-Sides_, then _Palace Of Swords Reversed_ (or _Totally Wired_, I think _Palace_ is out of print), then _A Past Gone Mad_ or _A World Bewitched_ for the 90s (I went with both, there's no track overlap). The 00's could be represented much, much better than the 13 tracks on disc 4. My picks:
Cyber Insekt
Two Librans
Dr. Buck's Letter
Jim's "The Fall"
Susan Vs. Youthclub
Green Eyed Loco Man
Theme From Sparta #2
Open The Boxoctosis #2
Proteinprotection
What About Us?
Bo D
Blindness
Reformation!
Fall Sound

i saw a new fall compilation at the mall, yesterday.
can't remember the name of it. it has a picture of mes on the cover.

weird. i checked the back of the case and it said 2007. maybe it's been reissued?.

http://www.thefall.info/fallsite/?page_id=113

i saw a new fall compilation at the mall, yesterday.
can't remember the name of it. it has a picture of mes on the cover.

this is a monthly occurence

I used to think that the Perverted By Language crowd were a little insane, but having just spent February listening to every Fall album in order, one-a-day, I've come around to the idea that PBL is their best and, ultimately, most representative album.

But I'd still probably send newbies to This Nation's Saving Grace or Hex Enduction, depending on what they were like.

I agree, but I would also entertain any folks who wanna talk to me about how PBL is the best one... after all, it has "Smile" and "Neighborhood Of Infinity" and "Garden" and "Hotel Bloedel" on it!

I started with Our Future, Your Clutter and find them all p much equivalent of the hard-to-get-into scale. and, maybe it's just b/c i started w/ it first, but i find it the easiest listening (?)

same deal w/ sonic youth. i recommend most everybody to start with Sonic Nurse, despite the usually unanimous vote for Daydream Nation to be the beginner's path. imo it seems as both bands progress in their careers that they adopt more and more pop sensibilities.

I like OFYC a whole lot, and would even defend it as a possible "best album" pick.

SY have -- mostly -- moved to more pop, though it's not a straight shot.

Fall, though...I don't know. Their poppiest songs are probably from Brix period, the three post-Brix albums, and in particular "Feeling Numb." Their later stuff isn't non-pop, but I don't really see a progression.

PBL is fantastic, but a little formless; still it's one of my favourite albums of the 80s...

There are probably worse ways to get into the Fall than to buy the newest one and work back, just don't get stranded in Light User Syndrome/Cerebral Caustic territory...for my money the best way is still to buy the 50000 Fall Fans comp, and then get everything from Dragnet up to Bend Sinister including live albums and even Hip Priests and Kamerads (so you can hear Look, Know) then after a while, pick up The Unutterable and The Real New Fall LP...

50,000 fans comp really is an excellent place to start.