Your Future Our Clutter: THE FALL 2010 Chop-Licking and Thub-Twiddling Thread

I know there is recently some discussion of this on another thread but given the atypically long (2 yrs!) layoff it seems like it deserves it's own thing...early indications are this one's a (missing) winner....

http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo346/HadrianVIII/tumblr_kyg0hmUpqJ1qb1pk2o1_500.jpg

("THUMB"). If I could twiddle my thub I'd never leave the house!

Can I get a mod on this? Thumb/"its"? Thx....

Imperial Wax Solvent was great! And the Fall has had the same line-up for about three years now! And this album's been stewing for about two years! These are good signs (though what's the time difference btw Heads Roll and Ref. Post-TLC?)

Adored everything pretty much unconditionally up to Fall Heads Roll. That one just left me feeling slightly empty, then with Reformation! PTLC I really felt they'd dropped something of a stinker. Now I think there's things to love about both of 'em (the blisteringly straightforward anti-I Wanna Be Your Dog burn of Youwanna, the delerious and vivid version of I Can Hear the Grass Grow from the first; and about a Slate's worth 10" of stuff from the latter).

Imp Wax Solvent was fantastic in many ways - return of lots of characters, a great and spooky set of lyrics on Alton Towers - but lacked an absolutely killer track (tho 50-year-old Man and Tommy Shooter came close) and suffered slightly from a slightly synthetic feel: cutnpaste of same vox for Is This New chorus and a few other examples. Just didn't quite reassure me after the relative duds of the previous two.

However, I'm feeling excited about this one - live they've been superb recently (apart from the one gig I went to, ugh). Yes, I'm worried about the relatively lenten looking tracklist (I've heard most of these in one form or another already) and the single they released before Christmas (Slippy Floor (Mark Mix) and Hot Cakes) showed similar weaknesses to early material - comparatively musically unimaginative, lyrically lenten.

But it had strengths - no cut and pasting of bits of lyrics into the song, so a more organic, live feel (currently their strength I think), plus a really great sound - a new version of the classic Fall Sound; sparse but dense, heavy but propulsive, dark but electric.

So I'm terrified - I don't want to get my expectations up too high, so I'm let down, but equally I don't want to be all low key about it, because this is basically my secular Christmas, and I'm determined to enjoy it.

Don't mean 'similar weaknesses to early material' btw, mean 'similar weaknesses to the recent material'

new stuff that I've heard is great: The Fall In The 21st Century

Yeah, I saw. I'm steering clear of advance material/reviews this time around partly out of superstition, partly out of wanting to avoid the whole 'RETURN TO FORM BEST SINCE HEX/GROTESQUE/SLATES' forum/music mag nonsense that seems to fly around every release (or people/papers/mags saying the opposite) and partly out of wanting to maintain as much of a sense of mystery as possible.

But it's good to see it's generally getting the thumbs up of course.

It does seem if you accept RTLC as a recent-Fall nadir and IWS as a vast improvement, this one has the potential to be amazing. That would be the historically consistent curve anyway. Then the 2011 record would suck horribly.

IMO their best phase was '96-'03 (ignoring AYAMW to some extent); I'd take those records above any other Fall phase. Levitate is one of my favourite albums ever by anyone and I've only heard it off Youtube for fuck's sake

xpost I'm also steadfastly NOT previewing, at least for as long as I can hold out.

Levitate is brilliant. But I love AYAMW too. Parts of it still sound way ahead of even "now."

To me, the first six tracks of IWS were unassailable, and the rest wz v. decent (though there were a couple songs I skipped over)...I thought both Heads Roll and TLC had some classic songs on each but that neither really merited repeated listenings...I think Formerly Country on the Click is one of the best albums of decade, and AYAMW had some good songs (though I liked 2G + 2 more; it has more kick, and that two-minute version of Kick the Can is a fantastic riff...no Crop-Dust though :(...)

still have to get my ears on The Unutterable and Levitate...

I think I need to give AYAMW a fair listen at some stage

oh golly gosh, those two albums are Fall in excelsis

(xpost) Yep, I think the last time a Fall album blindsided me was... well, actually Levitate, The Marshall Suit and The Unutterable all did in various ways - Levitate because it was so out there, like a 90's Hex, MS because the group had exploded and for a while it seemed uncertain they'd ever be back (the Peel session from that year is something else - close to being my favourite Fall thing ever), and of course The Unutterable because it was miraculously inventive, fun and scary.

So, I'm watching the skies with the fervour of ancient augurs searching for cosmological auspices basically.

Do like AYAMW as well.

does this mean acoleuthic that you are going to be giving Levitate major points on your freeform alt.90s.poll??? :)

yes, it does, as I've already intimated on the suggestions thread

oh okay cool

i can't believe more bands and musicians haven't realised that sometimes pushing the whole lot down the stairs or into the path of a trainwreck is the best thing you can do to your songs

For me, post-2000:

1. Real New Fall LP (Country on the Click)
2. Tromatic Reflexxions
3. The Unutterable
4. Imperial Wax Solvent
5. Are You Are Missing Winner
6. Fall Heads Roll
7. Reformation Post-TLC
8. Smith & Blaney

^^^that looks about right...tromatic reflexxions shdve been labelled a Fall album given the usual rules on what constitutes the Fall, added to the fact that it's wondrous

rumours are that Domino told what they originally had was not good enough (eg the single from last year), and got them to go back and record it again - delaying it by 4 months but potentially turning it from an OK-sounding fall record into an excellent one.

xpost I think he's burned a bridge w/ those two guys, which is really too bad. I would be perfectly contented if Von Sudenfed was the actual "Fall" for a bunch of albums.

Backdrop at recent gig: "What Domino Wants, Domino Shall Get," or something to that effect.

Yeah, wasn't sure about all that.

Recalling last May's Smith message -

ANOTHER year has passed - rapidly for some, too slowly for I, one-legged yet again. And yet, things re: The Fall improve, our new label, although young, are coping just about with 'The Fall". Yea, in a Castleford studio built on gravel the group cracked down some odd things. The main concern to avoid the much-ripped off already 'Imperial'. Our next record will be something that scum like that choke on.

I half wonder whether Smith went to his disruptive extreme and Domino did choke on it, but most of me thinks this rumour is baloney - Smith tends to do what he wants (tho has shown pragmatism in the past), Domino wd probably ok pretty much anything for the first album?

Unless it was really sketchy. In which case - I want to hear it!

fwiw

1) The Unutterable
2) Tromatic Reflexxions (if we're playing that game. I'm not convinced personally - Smith definitely turned up for this collaboration but the lyrics feel v unFall-like)
3) Are You Are Missing Winner (scabrous and unfriendly brilliance)
4) COTC
5) Imp Wax
6) Reformation Post TLC
7) Heads Roll

I'm not even playing the Smith Blaney game, apart from the two versions of Transfusion, which are amazing, but I'll just file those with their Silver Monk Time of Higgledy-Piggledy as 'excellent sundries'.

from what i gather that rather than wilful destruction, it was more of a case of something that was handed in that was just OK - and Domino went "no, this can sound much better". and apparently comparing the final recording to the versions put out last year makes it clear.

im sure this kind of thinking runs against the spirit of the fall, but i've always wondered what some of the material on Reformation and Heads Roll would be like a few more revisions down the road.

I agree with you about Reformation, but in a slightly backasswards way - apparently there was a really good session's-worth of material they'd done, really brilliant stuff by all accounts, and, typically, Smith just nixed it (see last minute mastering of Bend:Sinister from dodgy tape he had, COTC pre-release revision &c, I believe), preferring the off-the-cuff thing they put out instead.

Heads Roll I'm just not sure about, I think that one was always flying under the bar (I know people who wd strenuously disagree but whatever). The best things to come out of that were the session version of Blindness, one of the best things they've done, and probably Youwanna

I don't mind listening to FHR (Reformation always feels a struggle) but it never lights up even to the extent of Fall Sound or Systematic Abuse. Yeah (sorry matt, circling in on what you're saying here) really do feel Reformation cd have been great with more work.

and yes, thats a good point - without turning on the nostalgia bore, there was always a peel session to act as an alternate revisioning of everything up until reformation. going to have optimism from everything i've heard that this time MES (with or without domino's influence) hasn't underbaked the thing.

Absolutely otm about the Peel sessions and the revisioning. And yes, optimism all the way round here.

listening to The Unutterable right through (on Youtube, sigh) and yeah this is just...even the songs I'd thought of as lesser tracks are leaping at my throat

but then COTC is similarly undeniable. can't split 'em. phenomenal records both. bloody phenomenal. Unutterable needed a Peel session ;_;

i can't believe more bands and musicians haven't realised that sometimes pushing the whole lot down the stairs or into the path of a trainwreck is the best thing you can do to your songs

Seems like the vast majority of bands that get a chance to record for a wide audience feel under incredible pressure to get it right. MES is close to unique in that he's gotten to this state where he know there's always going to be another Fall album. Most songwriters loose their curiosity for messing around long before they reach that stage. Dylan is sort of there, but has never been as musically curious or anarchic. Tom Waits does it, but not as successfully as Smith.

Fuck, this album is ludicrous. So, so good. I knew that already but I know it even more now. Just needs to lose the minute-long title-track and that Pumpkin Soup song and it'd be flawless*. Those of you who hate on Midwatch 1953 (a masterpiece) and Devolute, gtfo

*You know what I mean.

Also, bendy that is a very good post, and gets to the heart of why this sudden post-1996 streak of brilliance means so very much to me

It's kind of funny for me to read this thread, because it was COTC where I jumped on board as a fan following the band in real time. Prior to that I had only absorbed first compilations and then later reissues of the seminal early albums. So COTC and Fall Heads Roll were the first two I bought as they came out and really adored both, so interesting to see them rank near the bottom of the decade's output. I also loved Reformation, but less than the previous two. Still haven't heard Imperial, because I keep waiting for a copy to actually show up in a shop around here (the less-than-stellar reviews kept me from trying much harder than that).

interesting how much opinions diverge on this recent output. my rankings:

1. Unutterable
2. Imperial Wax
3, COTC
4. Fall Heads Roll
5. AYAMW
6. Reformation

I agree the Peel Session versions of some of these tunes (Blindness, Sparta FC) are things of staggering immensity.

dunno about Von Sudenfed, should listen again but it didn't sound like The Fall to me.

After first listen, I'd say this is as good as "Country on The Click" -- I mean the songs are really good. "Bury Pts 1 & 3", "Hot Cake" and my goodness what a gem "Y.F.O.C./Slippy Floor" is. Going to listen to this quite a few more times this weekend.

Oh, stop teasing us and point us towards a leaked copy!

It's on the usual torrent sites now (don't have any other links, though). Like I said in that other thread, I think it's a masterpiece. It's way more cohesive than almost any of their albums, the band is really in a groove, everything works and sounds great. Not underbaked at all. There even seems to be a hospital theme in the second half.

Wow, this is crazy awesome!

I hope this gets them some attention/acclaim. I recall COTC got some, mostly because of the retooling I think, but I think this is bettter, honestly.

Does anyone else hear Daft Punk mixed in "Cowboy George" right at the 3:00 mark?

I'm being serious too

There's something there, but not a DP song I recognize.

I hear "Harder Better Faster Stronger" -- its sped up, so it could be Kanye's version? I dunno.

hahaha Funnel Of Love hell yeah

tracklist fyi:

01. O.F.Y.C. Showcase
02. Bury Pts. 1 + 3
03. Mexico Wax Solvent
04. Cowboy George
05. Hot Cake
06. Y.F.O.C. / Slippy Floor
07. Chinoa
08. Funnel Of Love
09. Weather Report 2

this is pretty good

hello. found this site because i was looking for this album. i couldn't find it earlier today, but i'm making my way through it for the second time now. i'd say it's grade-a fall material. only "chino" was less than stellar on the first pass. best since rnflp at least. this is the band that keeps on giving. i've been into them for 15 years and i've still got another 10 albums to get. this is probably the longest relationship that i'll ever have.

Some great, great arrangements on this, especially the droney/spoken words of Cowboy George/Weather Report. These are what have been sorely needed on the past few albums, imo. And MES with a good attempt at covering Funnel of Love, but it sort of just makes me want to listen the brilliant original version. Early Wanda Jackson is like one of the best (rockabilly) things ever.

really guys? really? really?

fyi: there are other bands! you do not have to spend time convincing yourself the fall are still making good music!

fyi: there are other bands

lol we know that. Who would The Fall cover if there were no other bands?

Next album is to be called "Other albums are available"

a friend said the last song was kinda tender mark e. a la "bill is dead", hope that's true

woah OFYC Showcase gets things MOVING from jump on this one!! : )

as compared to the last two...this seems like a much better recording and mix

the last two seemed really muddled sounding, almost like it mixed by someone that wasn't that competent.

This is definitely the best one for a while.

indeed

'this was an actual attempt of the operational experience ...'

This is much better than the new Joanna Newsom!

really guys? really? really?

― thomp, Wednesday, March 10, 2010 8:51 AM (3 hours ago)

yeah, really. you may not hear it but I sure do.

this album reminds me of Extricate.

"weather report 2"....wow....what an amazing song.

i'm sorta feeling vulnerable right now but damn this song is touching.

reminds me a bit of "living too late" (the first part) then i love the weird synth drone.

so this is good, huh

i'm going "very good" right now with a possibility of being great depending on how it ages

super. i will get on it. maybe.

"you will will suffer all the seasons on the sides of municipal buildings
and used to stop drafts in glass fronted alcoves"

"you don't deserve rock n' roll" is a helluva MES line.

Weather Report 2 is kinda killing me....what a song...

I think an interesting thing people don't talk a lot about is the tender side of Mark E. Smith...like this song...or "Edinbrough Man" or "Living Too Late" or "Paintwork" or "Bill is Dead"

he lets down the curtain so rarely that it's so amazingly affecting when he does.

there just so much cheap emotions in ever goddamn thing now. all these children and their fucking feelings and shit...not just wimpy indie stuff, it's basically everything now....fake sentiment and self pity

Mark E's emotion just hits me hard when he chooses to do it...especially because it might only be once every three or four ALBUMS (if that)

when he does it, it's kinda like a movie when the kid that got out of his working class neighborhood comes back to visit his Dad, who was drunk all the time and a hard man, but now the old man's not as strong as he used to be and his smoker's cough is getting worse and Mom left him and moved to Florida and he just sits watching TV all day....and then the kid comes back and they try to talk but the realize they can't and the dad says "Wanna beer son? wanna watch the game with your old man?" and the kid just says, "Sure Pop, that sounds good" and they just sit there together not saying anything

A++++ post, might make a playlist of those songs, would also like to hear this album right. now.

Does "Early Days Of Channel Fuhrer" count as a tender 'un as well?

also "Birthday Song"

Does anyone remember a sketch with Sheila Steiffel, Henry McGee, and Ronnie Corbett and it went "I'm lower, I'm middle, One's upper", a musical take on that "I look up to HIM, but I look Down on Him"

.. the punchline being as they go through the ages (they start as kids), by the time they are old, the lower one is a knighted lord, and the upper one is bankrupt.

(I think it was corbett. I'm certain of the others anyway)..

Well, that reminds me of the title track. Or does the track remind me of it?

Yes. that way.

ok y'all have 1 guess as to which track on this album is currently blowing me *away*

premature post

ok

if there was a thread entitled "albums which are totally ace krauty hard-rockin' workouts for 6 tracks, then suddenly lurch into being THE MOST AWESOME NEXT-LEVEL BRILLIANCE LJ will hear all fucking year FUCK HOLY SHIT DID YOU JUST HEAR THOSE LAST THREE SONGS"

this would probably be the first album I'd nominate to it

fuck

fuck

weather report 2 has just gone into my Fall POX and my eventual 2010 top 3 after 1 listen, no questions asked

I have really tried, but I've always struggled with The Fall's music. What's even more unique about my relationship with them, is that I can't find anything about them to enjoy, admire or appreciate. It's just there, clattering away. I love a lot of post-punk and Can, but The Fall seem to excise all the elements which I find interesting about those bands.

Maybe LJ can point me in the right direction: How To Love The Fall, for a non-believer who counts Andy Partridge and Tim Smith as his musical heroes.

When I was your age, I didn't get The Fall one little bit; I regarded them as annoying and rambly and rubbish. Boring crappy music done badly.

I'm not sure what happened.

Not sure you can get into The Fall without knowing a few other things as well; being a massive fan of Earl Brutus and Half Man Half Biscuit put me into a certain mindset where The Fall became more likely.

My way in was generally the dancier stuff they did, like The Crying Marshall and Cheetham Hill.

Boot Spotify. Listen to the song Gross Chapel - British Grenadiers, which is on Bend Sinister. Then boot up Youtube and listen to 4 1/2 Inch, from Levitate. Then without further ado, listen to Two Librans, from The Unutterable. Then listen to The Unutterable straight through. Then go back to Spotify and listen to Country On The Click. For as long as you can tolerate. Then listen to the Peel Session version of Australians In Europe. Then listen to Paintwork, off This Nation's Saving Grace. Then listen to the Peel Session version of New Puritan. Listen to it all. All of it, right through.

If you have a sense of what is going on during 'New Puritan', you're getting there.

If after all that, you don't, maybe take it slower. The Fall aren't for everyone, sadly.

Actually, the first thing you should listen to is this, because it's a fucking beautiful video for a fucking beautiful song, and because if you don't like The Fall there's another song after it to cleanse your palette:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSkOO6l4v-Q

Tell me what you think.

For those motorway to Damascus moments: I get the Fall now

haha oh god my moment of realisation's there isn't it

btw davek if yr still listening, this (extract from a) bendy post from that thread is applicable:

Given how many records there are and how many musicians have passed through and how many styles they've skimmed, they're like their own fucking genre. Like how you need to hear a few reggae or house records before you "get" it.

― bendy, Wednesday, 29 July 2009 19:22 (7 months ago) Bookmark

Hey - yes I'm still there! Okay I am ready for this. This is Monday's official assignment, after Bleak House is done with.

just bear in mind that MES' equivalent of Jarndyce vs Jarndyce is the fact that this is being heard by other people

he does not care what 'other people' means, it just is. engage with the incidentals.

anyway, after two more listens, on headphones, 'weather report 2' is flat-out best piece of new music i've heard in a long, long time

it reminds me a bit of 'electronic performers' by air, although it's far more surreal and brain-battering than that song

I first heard of the Fall around '95 from the big orange book (SPIN's Alternative Record Guide), picked up This Nation's Saving Grace prolley two years later, when I was 16, liked a few songs on it (Barmy, L.A., My New House, Couldn't Get Ahead) but didn't really 'get' it. Went a long time (six or seven years) without hearing anything else, until 2004 I think, when I was living in Brighton and found the 50,000 Fall Fans compilation at Best Buy. Went to their little Rhapsody display and heard the first few seconds of Repetition ('right noise!') and immediately bought it...took it home that night and listened to Repetition, which I thought was cool, and Industrial Estate, which was okay. Then I heard this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDZDgF2H7vU

by the time it ended, I was well on my way to being obsessed. This might sound a little too discordant and annoying on first listen. If that happens, then just watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBPcoI4OE9Y

and then listen again to 'Rowche Rumble' and imagine the kids are dancing to it.

rowche is one of my favorites! and the big orange book is where i found the fall as well... i still have it here somewhere, but it's completely torn up. that book is a treasure, but i think you had to get it when it came out for it to be all that useful. who woulda thunk... spin...

this album makes me very happy, especially after their last few left me a bit befuddled.

if you 'got' Rowche Rumble, and want to know what to listen to next, here are two more great songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpVTk7LoNfk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV3rz9FwKKQ

While we're at it, tentative track list has been announced by Beggar's for their 4CD edition of Wonderful And Frightening World Of... coming later this year. Peel Sessions everyone already has, but at least that's only 4 tracks of redundancy. And this record needed remastering badly:

CD1 The Wonderful And Frightening World of The Fall
Lay Of The Land
2 By 4
Copped It
Elves
Slang King
Bug Day
Stephen Song
Craigness
Disney’s Dream Debased

CD2 Singles / Rough Mixes
Oh! Brother
God-Box
O! Brother
c.r.e.e.p.
Pat – Trip Dispenser
C.R.E.E.P.
New Fiend (2 By 4)
No Bulbs 3
Slang King 2
Draygo’s Guilt
Clear Off!
No Bulbs
Lay Of The Land (Rough Mix)
Pat – Trip Dispenser (Rough Mix)
New Fiend (Rough Mix)
Slang King (Edits Version 1)

CD3 BBC Sessions
Creep (BBC Peel session)
Pat – Trip Dispenser (BBC Peel session)
2 By 4 (BBC Peel session)
Words Of Expectation (BBC Peel session)
God Box (BBC Jensen session)
Lay Of The Land (BBC Jensen session)
Oh Brother (BBC Jensen session)
Creep (BBC Jensen session)
No Bulbs (BBC Long session)
Draygo’s Guilt (BBC Long session)
Stephen Song (BBC Long session)
Slang King (BBC Long session)
Copped It (BBC Saturday Live)
Elves (BBC Saturday Live)
Fortress / Marquis Cha Cha (BBC Saturday Live)

CD4 Live at Pandora’s Music Box Festival – VPRO Radio
Lay Of The Land
Craigness
2 By 4
Draygo’s Guilt
No Bulbs
Kicker Conspiracy
Stephen Song
Copped It
Pat – Trip Dispenser
Middle Mass

Hmm....

You see, this is the tracklisting I associate with the listening experience that is "the wonderful and Frightening world of the fall:

"Lay of the Land" (Mark E. Smith, Brix Smith) – 5:45
"2 × 4" (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 3:38
"Copped It" (M. Smith, Karl Burns) – 4:15
"Elves" (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 4:47
"Oh! Brother" (M. Smith, Burns, Steve Hanley, Craig Scanlon) – 4:01
"Draygo's Guilt" (M. Smith, Scanlon) – 4:29
"God Box" (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 3:18
"Clear Off!" (M. Smith, Scanlon) – 4:40
"C.R.E.E.P." (M. Smith, Paul Hanley, S. Hanley, Scanlon. B. Smith) – 4:42
"Pat-Trip Dispenser" (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 4:00
"Slang King" (M. Smith, P. Hanley, B. Smith) – 5:21
"Bug Day" (M. Smith, Burns, P. Hanley, S. Hanley, Scanlon, B. Smith) – 4:58
"Stephen Song" (M. Smith, P. Hanley, S. Hanley) – 3:05
"Craigness" (M. Smith, Scanlon) – 3:03
"Disney's Dream Debased" (M. Smith, S. Hanley, B. Smith) – 5:17
"No Bulbs" (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 7:51

that's cd vers with single tracks slammed in Beggars stylee. but truth be told, it's the way to hear it.

Yeah I mean first I imprinted on the weird LP-plus-singles cassette tracklist in 1985, then I got used to the differently weird LP-plus-singles CD tracklist in the 90s... I've never really played the original tracklist.

But I can say one thing for sure which is the existing Beggar's CD is way too long to enjoy in one sitting.

I know it from a cassette copy that excises the redundant middle, but it does sound awful. Is the muddy underwater sound intentional or is this remaster goping to be a revelation?

I've sort of committed to not listening to future/clutter till it comes out, but April 26 is v far away and I am liking all these noises.

side B of the LP suffers from all the bright single tracks preceding it on the cd/cs vers, true

Your ears prick up. They call you 'Hitler'. Then kick you around like homogenized milk.

There’s a tape with an extended version of Barmy which was recorded at the March ’85 sessions along with Cruiser’s Creek, Rollin’ Dany and Couldn’t Get Ahead. It’s the same basic version that was used on the album but with subtly different sonics.
One of the ideas behind the Omnibus releases is to include a contemporaneous live recording of the songs but this won’t happen on this release as the master tapes for two radio recordings, from Clitheroe Castle and Bremen, have been lost or thrown out. Careless. It’ll still be a 3 disc set though, with a second disc of the rough mixes and selected out-takes and a third disc of singles and relevant tracks from John Peel sessions. Also found is a completed master for Ma Riley, an unreleased, Bo’s beat song originally intended as the bonus track on the Cruiser’s Creek 12”.

That's for the 3CD "This Nation's Saving Grace" btw

that album (WAFWOTF) is a large hole in my Fall consciousness - probably shd patch it up tbh

It's interesting how once you seperate out singles tracks Wonderful & Frightening is actually a pretty grim motherfucker (grim here being a descriptor, not a pejorative).

I dunno, it seems like "That's what it is.."

A bit like living with the Beatles' "White Album" for 20 years, then discovering that actually it's only 1 LP, and the actual track listing is this.

You can't help but miss the tracks that aren't there.

TWAFWOTF is the Fall album that took me the longest to get into exactly because of the album-plus-singles tracklisting on the cassette I had. Just too much to take in.

But once you're in, you cannae get out.

I love it now of course, except for No Bulbs.

aww folks are talking about my first Fall LP

I had heard "Man Whose Head Expanded" on the radio and was thus enthusiastic, my girlfriend at the time bought the LP and it is still one of my faves to this day. So I am used to the American PVC LP version which is the same as the first CD here with No Bulbs and CREEP thrown in the middle.

really excited to hear this one is remastered sound. also, this:

God Box (BBC Jensen session)
Lay Of The Land (BBC Jensen session)
Oh Brother (BBC Jensen session)
Creep (BBC Jensen session)
No Bulbs (BBC Long session)
Draygo’s Guilt (BBC Long session)
Stephen Song (BBC Long session)
Slang King (BBC Long session)
Copped It (BBC Saturday Live)
Elves (BBC Saturday Live)
Fortress / Marquis Cha Cha (BBC Saturday Live)

looks like a great alternate-version listening experience

it is a good year for Fall fans

That non Peel session stuff is great, esp like Stephen Song, God Box and Copped It.

Worth seeking out the session versions of Haf Found Bormann and Frenz as well.

AH AH AH OOOOH

AH AH AH OOOOH

That bit kills, doesn't it? Just make the whole track. I love things like that.

Her performance on that song is very Brix-y, which she hasn't been in the past. But I agree that it kills.

You guys are wearing down my resolve to wait until I can buy this...

^
display name has inspired me with patience.

Anyone finish this?
http://thequietus.com/articles/03925-the-fall-and-mark-e-smith-as-a-narrative-lyric-writer
Read about half, felt like it was falling into the lit crit it had claimed was to be avoided. Maybe I've picked over these songs in my head too much to enjoy or engage with it.

Read the first couple of lines last week. Thought 'I must read this at some point.'

makes bold claim MES has written no narrative songs since Frenz LP, when then truth is probably closer to: writer has owned no Fall LPS since then

I mean, almost ALL of Reformation TLC is a narrative song! (band breaks-up, new band forms, records LP, goes on road, etc)

Is that really the cover in the initial post?

Xpost - yeah, that narrative thing, while broadly true, doesn't really hold up to a detailed survey. Serum? Ballard of J Drummer? Is This New?

Even if they're really fractured like Midwatch 1953 or Hurricane Edward I'd argue they're working on a narrative basis. Part of what gives them their force imo.

right...Hurricane Edward almost reminds me of a Lynch movie sometimes...

"but I was the DJ tonight ... so I flooded the club"

it reads like warmed-over reduxes of k-punk's Fall posts from a few years earlier...compare his take on 'Prole Art Threat' here (scroll down just a little bit) with T. Parke's and you'll see my difference.

this however:

The lit-rock lexicon, and its general aesthetic (when not pseudo-noble pseudo-savage, or self-conscious sub-Beat babble) is at heart Left Bank/ red wine, a hopeless sentimentalism. Words are chosen for their pleasing colour, and the purpose of those words is to beguile and distract and, in the end, to charm. Their aim is not to convey information, rarely even real emotion, more a vision of the writer as Writer (sat up with a bottle of Jacob's Creek and 12 Marlboro Lights at 2am, the little devil) - or else as some bruised Everyman, shaking a smooth fist at the sky. It's fundamentally romantic, in at least one sense (and always the wrong sense), a gross romanticism degraded not just by its own status as commodity, but by its lousy, self-serving sneakiness.

goes a long way towards explaining why I think 'Rowche Rumble' is the greatest protest song ever, and still somewhat relevant after thirty years...

(the italicized paragraph being a key description of the traps I think most protest songs fall into)

Hmm that's not badly observed. But I still donwanna read the piece.

K-punk's bit was nice-- did he ever wrap up his Fall series? (Not normally a fan of his, for the record)

the link leads to the last of 'em...he was supposed to do a lecture that focused I think on MES's singular style on Weird fiction (including his take on 'Various times') but for reasons beyond his control he was unable to..he ended up posting a truncated version on his blog though...

awesome video interview w/MES

mostly talks about visual artists and painters, damien hirst gets hit with a beer bottle!

http://channel.tate.org.uk/tateshots-blog/2010/03/10/sound-vision-mark-e-smith/

MES is so great!

I weakened, I weakened, last night I g00gled and obtained. Will listen this afternoon and report.

you also have to liveblog your first listen of 'weather report 2'

xpost - Bah, damn you. I had my first 'but what if I die first?' moment the other day, while rather foolishly using a central reservation to cross a six-lane high road, but manfully didn't use this as an excuse. As I say, it's my secular Christmas.

But what if I die first? No Xmas for John Quays.

hey UK peeps, who is "old Archibald Yates" in "Mexico Wax Solvent"?

THIS IS SO GOOD

yeah - the first six tracks are getting better on repeat listens! not quite to the extent to which they match the last three, but this album now totally works like a dream - charms and surprises ya for 35 minutes, then starts blowing minds

actually it's entirely possible to break this album into thirds - in which case the second third is marginally the weakest of the three, but still great, the first is driving, caterwauling, moshalong sonic dopamine, and the third is next-level righteous delirium morphing into shamanistic wonder

u need to listen to more AH AH AH OOOH if u think that about the middle part, at least u covered yr tracks with "still great".

the only track I wouldn't miss is YFOC/Slippy Floor, which is easily the record's weakest moment, but really the only truly substandard thing here

argh madness

there's a special fantasy in my brain atm which states that if MES had saved 'Bonkers In Phoenix' in a vault and put it on any one of the albums from Levitate onwards, that album would automatically become one of the greatest albums ever made (if it wasn't already) - that's the position on the album where it might have fitted in rather nicely

YFOC/SF just doesn't um do much - the bass does a nice little pitch-modulation at the end and the first section is nice but the 'Slippy Floor' part is a bit TOO linear. It drops the wrong side of a line 'Bury Pts 1+3' stays gloriously on the right side of

but this is minor nit-picking about a rather fucking splendid album

also 'Slippy Floor' is clearly going to grow on me. like the others.

my outrage is good-natured, I assure you. Mark Prindle had pretty much the same critique of the song when it came out as a single 1-2 months ago.

and yeah, "Bury", holy shit.

Mark Prindle is one of the best Fall critics in existence and it's the page of his I read by FAR the most - dude needs to listen to more British music IMO

also my favourite 'linear' track on the album is the opener - it builds like SUCH a motherfucker. holy god.

Wow, just finished with the AH AH AH OOOOOOHs. Fucking killer!

Slippy Floor is a hunk of straight-up animal energy like I haven't heard on a Fall album since Hey! Student.

Love the way this whole record sounds! If only RPTLC had been engineered like this.

yeah it sounds feckin' ace - massy, spacey and crisp. now and for the next ten to fifteen minutes you are having your sockets fused tho so i'll hush

WAU WAU WAU

FKING WEATHER REPORT 2 (2nd section) WTF WTF

:D

WTF it is, is MES + band tapping into something completely astral, on a fucking Fall album, in 2010. bless this band.

and the whispered coda DAMN I didn't see that track coming based on anything they've done since ever. This may actually be a new kind of Fall song, I dare say.

It goes from like heart-tugging vintage Cure to a kind of MES equiv of The Drift. Gave me chills y'all.

it reminds me a bit of 'electronic performers' by air, although it's far more surreal and brain-battering than that song

― oh shit sorry another useless post (acoleuthic), Sunday, 14 March 2010 11:17 (1 week ago) Bookmark

your comparisons are just as apt, though - as I said, it's one of the most astonishing things I've heard in ages (it and Bonkers In Phoenix, in fact, are the two songs I've heard for the first time recently which have made me go "!!!!!!!!!!")

Now that it's over I have to go back and hand a prize to Mexico Wax Solvent for it's AWESOME oinking synth figure. Sounds like Eleni is not limiting herself to just the one mini synth now?

Having heard the whole sequence the lunkheaded pogo of the opener fits as a kind of departure lounge for the rest, a few minutes to get your thoughts together before proceeding.

Now that it's over I have to go back and hand a prize to Mexico Wax Solvent for it's AWESOME oinking synth figure.

YES!!! It's a MONSTER, all echoey and sharp and big and concise and driving and GOD THAT OCCASIONAL THREE-NOTE GUITAR-LINE UNDERNEATH THE SYNTH. My favourite track until the closing triptych. Some of the best lyrics on the album too.

The opener is the engine starting, and revving up for five minutes. The acceleration is kinetic and compelling.

yeah it makes me leap around the house when it comes on, love those drums. if fact, the drum sound on most of the album is top notch.

in the clip i posted above, it looked like eleni was using a kaos pad or something similar

xpost jon

the drift is a great reference point for the second part of weather report, good call.

Fuck that circular, jangly guitar figure in Mexico Wax Solvent is giving my amygdala a scented-oil rubdown.

AND I KNOW IT WAS MY AQUA ROSA

Keep trying to listen to something else CANNOT

NO ONE HAS EVER CALLED ME SIR
IN MY ENTIRE
LIFE

i think 'bury' is the weakest song on the set but thats maybe cos one of the speakers in my car dsnt work.

agree w/everyone, love the album, etc. d'like to add that weather report 2 seems like a good song to get ppl into the fall, i just put it near the end of a mix with a lot of hype indie stuff that i gave to a few friends, interested to see if anyone digs it (if they make it that far)

NO ONE HAS EVER CALLED ME SIR
IN MY ENTIRE
LIFE

Deae MES, don't believe yew, txkbye MG

The number of members of the Greater Manchester Constabulary who must have called him sir must measure in the high hundreds alone.

Have to say again, such a shame the album with the yank kids wasn't engineered like this one and Imperial. It still wouldn't have been as good as this one, but the americans-plus-eagle-and-extra-guitarist lineup, heard live, was an incredible thing, a windtunnel sound like Hawkwind at full roar.

My best Fall gig ever was with this line up. The last night at Hammersmith Palais, released as the live album last year.

Just picked up a copy of the "27 Points" double CD live collection for only £2.50 in a local charity shop. Anyone heard it?

It's really great I think. One of my favourites.

Really great total texture if that makes any sense.

Was trying to do two things at once there, hence runic brevity - 27 Points is a wonderful tapestry of live stuff, outtakes and new material and just really really works, takes you deep into The Fall world.

Thanks, I'm going to give it a listen now! It's got a lot of stuff from the Infotainment Scan era, which is one of my favourite LPs of theirs.

Doran, 1000x thanks for alerting me to the existence of that Palais live album. Somehow I had missed that there was an official release of that evanescent lineup. Listening now and this is like the rampaging sound I remember.

Yeah, it's a DVD isn't it?

http://www.dominorecordco.com/images/artists/the_fall/1024_540/thefall_yourfuture.jpg

Jon Lewis: Yeah, it's a good one isn't it? Up there with Totale's Turns and The Legendary Chaos Tapes as far as Fall live albums go I reckon. The whole bit of the gig at the end where some really posh, former punk, who was dressed in a beige linen sex tourist suit (I think - I was very drunk) got on stage to berate the band for not being respectful enough to the venue by not playing more classic material and for not being respectfully punk rock enough followed by Smith's game attempts to get back on stage to do an encore past beleaguered security guards was pretty funny to witness. There's some of it on the album I think.

There was also a pretty funny bit where Smith starts berating one of the Los Angelinos for having a beard and says something like "April Fool. Loose the beard or I loose you."

I remember at the time thinking 'For fuck's sake. Don't lose one of the best incarnations of The Fall ever, just because one of them has got facial hair.'

I downloaded Cowboy Gregori yesterday - b-side of the new single Bury. Haven't heard any of the album yet (this isn't on it)

At first it felt v B-sidey, but it grew on me quickly. Spikey warped rockabilly with sort of lounge jazz delivery. Has that odd combination of sharply defined guitar/drum/bass elements intertwining in a protean way that characterises How I Wrote Elastic Man. Really coalesces about the 'Indian Summer - that never came and the anaesthetic - didn't work anyway' lyrical section.

(each dash there representing an uplift of voice to indicate hope, and a drop afterwards to indicate disappointment - matching the guitar line).

Then there's a few weird, intangible moments of shimmer. Liking this more with every play tbh. Can't wait for the album.

'The unseen footage turned out to be a bag of shit'

that front cover is easily the worst cover they've ever released. at least the album is great.

Looking forward to picking this up at the end of a long, long day at work.

<object width="480" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xd2rvt_beleaguered-fall-fan_creation";></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xd2rvt_beleaguered-fall-fan_creation"; width="480" height="360" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd2rvt_beleaguered-fall-fan_creation";>Beleaguered Fall fan</a><br />Uploaded by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/Buy_Kurious";>Buy_Kurious</a>. - <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/gb/channel/creation";>Arts and animation videos.</a>

Fuck, sorry - too early.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd2rvt_beleaguered-fall-fan_creation

Wow, FACT pretty much hated this. I still love it, but not out officially for another week over here.

I listened to it on luisterpaal this morning, thought it was pretty boring, sorry. Songs don't go anywhere musically (buncha one-chord jams) and the production is annoying (esp. the drum sound). I liked The Real New Fall LP but I think other than that I'm not really into newer Fall.

I wasn't that taken on first play.

Now? After 10th play?

Doesn't go anywhere musically + bad production ... sounds like The Fall to me.

I listened to it on luisterpaal this morning, thought it was pretty boring, sorry. Songs don't go anywhere musically (buncha one-chord jams) and the production is annoying (esp. the drum sound). I liked The Real New Fall LP but I think other than that I'm not really into newer Fall.

― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, April 27, 2010 10:32 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

"You do not deserve rock and roll."

Doesn't go anywhere musically + bad production ... sounds like The Fall to me.

Couldn't disagree more really. This album certainly goes places, reflections upon mortality, the future and fading powers, and love, increasing in force and potency as the album goes on. Too early to place it amongst other Fall albums - I only got it yesterday but it's definitely the most interesting thing they've done in a while.

Confirms my belief that declining abilities, or a perception of loss of certain powers does not in any way reduce the likelihood of a powerful work of art - that reflections on decline can be as powerful as creations in your pomp. The subject and expression of decline and weakness producing perhaps less intellectually powerful, but more human works.

As for bad production - The Fall have always been about the vulnerability of recordings; recordings as artefacts, as auditory impressions of events ('satanic meditations, shadow emissions'), subject to psychic distortion, and material distortion, emphasising their physical attributes as recordings.

The old 'shouting at bus-stop' criticism which appears regularly with the appearance of each new Fall album represents a) a lack of imaginative engagement with the dramatic range of Smith's voice (something that has increased with age) and b) an indifference to the idea (most forcefully expressed in The Unutterable, but present as a lyrical shaping force recently, and kind of implicit throughout The Fall's history), that certain subjects can only be approached, or are best approached obliquely, tangentially. That clarity of interpretation and certainty are the misguided desires of the mundane. The impression that many Fall songs represent a vortex, the locus of which is obscure, but felt, just beyond tangibility.

One the many alchemical resolutions of paradox in The Fall is their ability to take these apparently slightly rarified concepts and produce them in a visceral, uncomplicated (but often exceptionally far-reaching) way.

The final track has left me feeling both teary and frightened - a great example of the poetic emotions The Fall are able to provoke.

i love the fall, but not to the degree that i own everything and love everything he does...far from it...

this album is waaaay better than anything since RNFLP (or maybe Heads Roll depending on my mood, i go back and forth on that one)

Guys this is why I love Fall thread on ILX because people are able to offer up such great arguments about why they love the albums.

"Fall threadS"

Just to clarify, I didn't say the production was bad, I said it was annoying. If anything, it's too clean. Again, I was listening to a stream of the album but what I heard sounded like it was recorded in a cheap digital studio, just had this flat empty digital sound to it. Like if it sounded like:

As for bad production - The Fall have always been about the vulnerability of recordings; recordings as artefacts, as auditory impressions of events ('satanic meditations, shadow emissions'), subject to psychic distortion, and material distortion, emphasising their physical attributes as recordings.

I would have actually liked it. The best part was the start of the second (?) song where everything was all distorted and muted and weird.

However, once again, this is based on one listen via a digital stream so I could definitely be wrong.

Sorry, n/a, was more responding to Jamie_ATP (couldn't tell whether it was a fond observation, or a derogatory one - but still disagreed). I haven't got a very good ear, I think, for that digital emptiness, but haven't personally noticed on this album myself.

oh definitely fond, and being silly with it. personally I think it's their best for a while, but it took 5-10 listens for me to realise it.

Good-oh. As you were then, everyone. My post was more a response to some reviews I'd read anyway, which had made me rather defensive/aggressive.

Oh, and also because I was feeling rather fragile after Weather Report 2, which really put me through the ringer for some reason.

wringer dammit.

I've been listening to this a lot recently. YFOC/Slippy Floor still the only substandard moment. The rest is fucking amazing. Mexico Wax Solvent and that christ-goddamn final track especially.

(even Cowboy George gets really good with repeat listens...)

Yeah, love MWS. Have to admit I really like the second half scurf of Slippy Floor. The vox get rly unhinged.

That's really the only song where FACT's accusations stand up, for me

This was streaming on NPR.org today.

Oh, and even YFOC/Slippy Floor is growing on me a bit. There's a bit of good sonic fuckery going on towards the end.

I really like YFOC/Slippy Floor, maybe because I heard the "Mark Mix" first and the album version is an improvement on that.

^same here Jouster. That Slippy Floor single didn't bode at all well, even tho I sort of enjoyed it in the right mood. The album version is much superior.

idk tbh I liked the last one a whole lot more than this...Chino/Funnel of Love/Weather Report 2 is an awesome, visionary sequence, and I love Cowboy George, but IWS is unstoppable up until Can Can Summer, and even then you have Tommy Shooter and SRST to look forward to...(and Latch Key Kid too if the mood is right)

Get a Summer Song Goin' and 986 Generator both very enjoyable (the former including weird futuristic/atavistic visions of London, in a standard sloppy rock Fall beat, the latter a rambly lomping one-string country stomp about some chap 'living a dream in a time machine'. Neither essential or germane to the album, but both appealing. The return of Fall sundries is an appealing aspect of this album as well.

More I listen to this album, the more I like it. I'm beginning to like it a lot. Something protean and mysterious about it, seem to get different angles every time I play it. V dark and disturbing (and I'd include the first half on this as well). Vox about as good as he's ever done.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/arts/music/02fall.html Ben Ratliff article in the NY Times. He compares following the Fall to following the Grateful Dead and also throws in a story about anime and his kids and making up his own Fall song. Not sure that works

YFOC/Slippy Floor still the only substandard moment.

Don't get this; pretty sure it's one of my favorite cuts on the album. (Mainly, the "Slippy" half is fast, and rhythmically propulsive like they used to be.) Still getting past my "I haven't cared about any Fall albums since This Nation's Saving's Grace, so why should I care about this one" skepticism for the rest, but I'm coming around. Lots of the record sounds more vague than I wish so far, but tracks #1, 2, and 5 have a kick to them. (Have barely skimmed this thread so far either.)

Anyway, a question -- if I wind up loving this new album, which is possible, which Fall albums from, say, the past 20 years should I check out? I pretty much got bored and stopped paying attention after Seminal Live in 1989, so I have a feeling I've missed some good stuff. (Favorite ones ever are Live At The Witch Trials, Hex Enduction Hour, and Hip Priest And Kamerads, if that counts.)

The perennial question that never stops being fun to answer. For me anyway.

Light-User Syndrome
Levitate
Unutterable

I'd say are essential.

I love the early '90s period, but, well, you can detect maybe the foot coming off the gas a little. Shift Work has it's haters as a sort of pop album, Fall light, but I think it's probably one of Smith's most lyrically interesting (and it's musically interesting as well, but perhaps not as visceral as earlier material. So, second string -

The Marshall Suite
The Real New Fall LP (formerly Country on the Click)
and one of Extricate, Shift-Work, Code: Selfish, and The Infotainment Scan, not because they are as one, apart from some similar thematic concerns, but because, fond as I am of all of them (esp Code:Selfish) they lack the crucial, top-of-powers feeling of the top three.

which Fall albums from, say, the past 20 years should I check out?

Isn't the easy answer to this just to get the Peel sessions box? That at least can direct your next album purchases.

Yes, to a certain extent, although I think that this period of Peel sessions isn't particularly representative of the albums in some ways (in a good way by and large). The answer's still yes, tho. It's an essential purchase really, whatever your angle.

Xhuxk, my answer to yr question is:

--The previous one, Imperial Wax Solvent, which has the same personnel, similar sound, and is also excellent, maybe not QUITE as striking as the new one.

--The Real New Fall LP Formerly Country On The Click, with the youthful mid-00s lineup, which was the best Fall LP in terms of 'songwriting' since the 80s, just a killer batch of songs.

--The Peel Session which came between Real New Fall LP and Heads Roll, where the performance of 'Blindness' probably stands as the greatest Fall performance of the 00s. This Peel Session made it seem like Heads Roll was gonna be a colossus, but the versions which came out on the record were disappointing.

--the 2CD compilation of nineties stuff A World Bewitched, which gathers together all kinds of random compilation tracks, collaborations, alternate versions etc and somehow coheres into a great record.

@ Remember Me but O! Forget my Feet: Your post of 4/27/10, 1:51pm was one of the best I've read here in a long time, regardless of topic. Just wanted to give kudos!

Cheers, ImprovSpirit. I've been working on a essayey-thing (not even really sure what it is yet) about them recently, so quite a lot of stuff's been flying round my head waiting to get formulated, and threads like this can be a good place to juggling around with a few ideas.

xhuxk, fwiw, this is my favorite Fall-related piece of music in the last 20 years. But I'm likely alone...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqyEfv0ruvo

out on CD in the US today!!!

Who'd a thunk, The Fall in High Definition!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joY8Qn0dh3M

(Ah. Not here, though. Click on it and then pick the HD stream)

I like that MES' notebook is filled only with insults. "You are an oaf. Your blood is worthless." "Look this up on the net / you useless crock / dough load creck dreck."

do i deserve rock n' roll can't tell

And what the hell is (Sky) Saxon's recording of Lost London? Any takers? I only really know his Seeds stuff.

lordy mexico wax solvent is some pungent funk innit

Available on eMusic now, for those of us who weakened and downloaded the leak and want to pay a little in now.

also out now on double LP in the US

Finally listening to this -- stellar stuff so far.

So Ned. By now you've heard the closing track. Whatya think of that one?

^^^important question

^^^important post

^^^does not deserve rock & roll

It rules. Down to the very last half heard syllable.

It definitely reveals more of itself with repeated listens, i.e. the beginning of "Bury" was initially annoying but now is perfect. It's interesting, the last couple of Fall albums have had a much higher hit-to-miss ratio than anything since the 80s. Guess get ditched by the TLC's paid off!

The Fall - The Unutterable

Anything that can generate this much fuss & kerfluffle has to be a worthy gob of art. I gotta get this record.

@ Remember Me But O! Forget my Feet: One of my favorite pieces of musical scrawlings is a long, rambling thing Lester Bangs wrote about the Stooges & Fun House. He seldom mentions either the Stooges or Fun House [given that they're the topic!], but it couldn't be more ABOUT them if he had mentioned them in every paragraph.

Naw, see "The Unutterable" for me is absolutely PERFECT for the first 9 tracks and then falls off a cliff (except "Hands Up Billy" which is the greatest non-Fall Fall track ever).

No, it's absolutely PERFECT for the first 9 tracks and then falls off a cliff and then at the bottom of the cliff is Hands Up Billy and then three awesome fucked-up Levitate-esque experiments

But this is an argument I've run into the ground before. Just you wait until I start the Levitate poll!

so, a friend says the vinyl of this has two more songs and fucks with the sequence!...hm.....mm.......

weather report 2 is not the last song anymore : (

OH NO YOU DI'IN'T!

WAHT

I am getting the 2LP tomorrow, will report back

I kinda love how MES keeps fucking up/changing the US releases of his records.

is it heads roll where the actual track listing on the cd is not on the case but in a printed-after-the-fact insert?

Yeah, there's 2 bonus tracks too - "986 Generator" and "Get A Summer Goin", the latter of which is nicely catchy. And on the JP CD release there's "Cowboy Gregori" from the single.

think that last post is about the new album, yes M@tt Fall Heads Roll had the messed up tracklist.

yeah i get confused because the UK county on the click is different from the american the real new fall LP (formerly county on the click) right?

yes, that was the last record that was really different in US/UK versions iirc

I paid 26 goddamn dollars for the UK version and then months later there was a US release with different tracks, fortunately I burned it from my radio station.

I have the "Heads Roll" promo, track listing on the sleeve.

So, maybe the insert was a 'design' feature, or maybe the track listing on the promo is wrong, or maybe it's right and they changed the track order/listing afterwards...

i.e. the beginning of "Bury" was initially annoying but now is perfect.

I think the vocals in the beginning section of this may be my favourite vocals on the album, so smeared and incoherent, like some sort of abstract distillation of contempt.

986 Generator and Get a Summer Song Goin' are good without being essential (some great lyrics on the latter tho - appears to be about some flooded/inflammable London of the future and an ancient myth).

My main beef would be with not having Weather Report as the final track any more, and futhermore following it with the foursquare rock of Get a Summer Song Goin', which I just don't feel like after the chills of the previous song.

OK 986 Generator is pretty great, and 8 minutes long! Kinda shambling like "Junk Man", when I heard it I remembered that there's usually a song like that somewhere on a Fall album.

Not having WR2 last is just deliberate perversity, now the record ends with "Cowboy George"!

Anyway, my review of this.

one day...a spanish king...with a council of bad knaves came to...bury

a new way of recording

a chain around the neck

*riff*

'EX-PATS!' gets spat out on a couple of track

LOL @ Space Invaders noises on "Get A Summer Song Goin'"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhLG-vZhF6o

Wow. That's one of the better Smith/Blaney joints i must say. LOL little nipper with megaphone. LJ can you contextualize this for a non-sporting non-britishes?

And no, by strange coincidence I created that display name 10 minutes before you posted that vid

MES has always expressed a disdain for the England team; considers them lily-livered and overly Southern. However, Capello has become national coach; a man of strict Italian principle and thus a manager close to MES' own dictatorial heart. Hence I feel MES has softened to the England team. I guess he felt that in this year where England have seemingly pulled their socks up, he ought to express some sort of warped allegiance. Nonetheless I still feel that the song expects England to fail, and deals with that failure pre-emptively. MES considers himself psychic, remember. I'm guessing he thinks England will play well and lose this time. Remember the pitch in December. Know your roots. They will support you when the summer ends.

Thankig u. So LOL 'WE CAN WIN' text with visual of girl desultorily tipping over her drumset?

^^^yep

<3 this guy so much

This is seriously good!

The world cup song sounds like a fucking joke, the sort of thing you'd come up with if you were trying to do a pisstake of a MES joint.

It's not as good as what a friend of mine came up with w/ the MES reads the footy scores:
http://www.yisyisyis.com/YIS%20-%20mark%20e%20smith%20reads%20the%20football.mp3

I'll listen to that when I get home, but yes, the curious and unimpressive Smith/Blaney relationship continues. Can't help thinking Blaney's got something over Smith. Rum card, our Blaney. Dodgy number.

that footy results thing is not bad at all

Yeah, the smith/blaney album pretty much sucked except for 1 or 2 tracks. That's why i said the abovelinked was one of their better efforts.

I don't think Blaney has anything over MES, MES probably enjoys tormenting people with the Blaney collabos, just as he enjoyed tormenting ppl with Safi Sniper's VJing.

http://www.viceland.com/blogs/en/2010/06/04/ny-times-critic-takes-25-years-to-%E2%80%9Cget%E2%80%9D-the-fall/

well this Mark Ames doesn't come across as a total cunt

[/sarcasm]

^^^see, that was sarcasm! s-a-r-c-a-s-m!

cunt.

Categories and rules: like the rule that Mark E. Smith’s lyrics are “meant only to be performed”? That has to be the single silliest statement by a critic that I’ve ever read. What happens to Mark E. Smith’s lyrics when they’re not performed? Do they evaporate? Do the meaning-molecules break apart once exposed to the printed “context”? The categories seem more than just petty pedantics—maybe there should be a disclaimer at the bottom of every communication containing a Fall lyric.

MES doesn't supply lyric-sheets and has stated in his book that he regards lyrics as separate to poetry, but nice try eviscerating a clearly well-meaning gentleman who is trying to sell difficult music to an audience of simple sensibilities and is applying subjective standards in order to quantify the work

Anonymous, on Jun 4, 2010 wrote:
Mark Ames, you inveterate windbaggy shitfucker, you have wasted my time. Ben Ratliff’s article is infinitely better than yours. Hang it up - I don’t care if you wrote this at 4 in the morning while fighting a deadline. In fact, this fucking moronic review of a review has me possibly as incensed as the Raitliff article incensed you...but I’ve written enough words on it. And I’m already embarrassed, but I’m still going to hit the "Submit Comment" button. You are an incredibly shitty writer and should be ashamed of having written this. And your worship of The Fall is sad.

final sentence aside, OTM

I don't read Vice or its attendant blogs. That mag is a fucking stain.

Funny to see MES getting riled up a shit band, but wonder what that last sentence means for the next record:

The Fall's Mark E Smith was apparently involved in an altercation with dire banjo wielding troupe Mumford & Sons at an Irish festival earlier this year. In an interview with the Australian magazine Brag Smith complained that The Fall's increasing popularity at festivals means they're forced to meet new bands who are often "ass lickers". Even worse, some of them are Mumford & Sons.

"We were playing a festival in Dublin the other week. There was this other group like, warming up in the next sort of chalet, and they were terrible. I said 'shut them cunts up' and they were still warming up, so I threw a bottle at them. The bands said 'that's the Sons of Mumford' or something, 'they're number five in charts!' I just thought they were a load of retarded Irish folk singers."

Also in the interview, Smith claimed that he'd "left Domino records last week".

(apologies if this was already covered in one of the hundred other Fall threads)

Since this is the 2010 thread for these guys, can I just say o_O at this 4-disc omnibus edition of The Wonderful and Frightening World? Its fantastic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mOgJimavk4

Released 24 January 2011

This Nation’s Saving Grace illustrates The Fall’s own saving grace; they can put out record after record of virtually interchangeable rants and riffs, grinds and grunts, and still find a way to move about within that corseted structure. It’s hard to say if the arrival of Leckie prevented a horrid rut from happening, but his presence has enabled them to create a very personal and splendid studio sound. The Fall have made one of their most accessible LPs yet; at the same time, they have made a record that’s infinitely more peculiar than almost anything else released this year. You’d have thought we’d be used to the Mark E. method by now, but no, ‘This Nation’s Saving Grace’ indicates there’s still something very odd about The Fall. This is a cool group, all right.
- David Quantick – NME 28 September 1985

The 25 years since the release of This Nation’s Saving Grace have only enhanced the reputation of this album, considered by many to be The Fall’s finest. Drawing from the well of primal rock ‘n’ roll, the band play with muscular spontaneity and inspiration to create music that still sounds unique and challenging, especially against today’s anodyne imitations of Rock and ‘guitar music’. A masterpiece.

Disc 1 restores the CD to the original vinyl sequence with no bonus tracks.
Disc 2 presents the original working mixes (most of the songs were recorded live in one take) and reveals different balances to the ingredients of the sonic jigsaw (often with clearer vocals). Though it’s heresy to suggest it, some of these raw mixes have an energy that may improve on the final tracks. All these versions are previously unreleased.
Disc 3 collects the singles and alternative edits and recordings with six John Peel session versions of album tracks.

“Feel the wrath of my Bombast!” exhorts Smith on this follow-up to their groundbreaking Wonderful and Frightening World of… the Fall, and this collection is ample proof of the pure confidence the group had at this time. Stompers like “Barmy,” “What You Need,” and the mighty “Gut of the Quantifier” are all led by Brix Smith’s twanging lead hooks, filled by distorted guitars and bludgeoning drums, on top of which Smith rants with conviction. But it’s the departures from this sound that mark the real interest here: The synth-driven “L.A.” looks ahead to the Fall’s experiments with electronica; “Paint Work” is an impressionist piece interrupted by Smith accidentally erasing over some of the track at home; and “I Am Damo Suzuki,” a tribute to Can’s lead singer, which borrows its arrangement from several of that group’s songs. The Fall sound mysterious, down-to-earth, and hilarious all at the same time. … an essential purchase.
4 1/2 out of 5 stars – Ted Mills – All Music Guide

Compiled for fans, the Omnibus Editions are intended to expand and illuminate the development of specific albums, bringing together all the relevant single releases with previously unreleased studio, session and live recordings. This release is presented as a limited edition box set and includes CD’s in the Japanese-style paper sleeves, reproducing the original vinyl cover art, with a 48 page book featuring new interviews.

CD1 This Nation’s Saving Grace
Mansion
Bombast
Barmy
What You Need
Spoilt Victorian Child
L.A.
Gut Of The Quantifier
My New House
Paintwork
I Am Damo Suzuki
To Nkroachment: Yarbles

CD2 ROUGH MIXES and OUT-TAKES
Demo Suzuki (Rough Mix)
Wonderful And Frightened pt.1 (Rough Mix)
Wonderful And Frightened pt.2 (Rough Mix)
Gut Of The Quantifier (Rough Mix)
Bombast (Rough Mix)
Barmy (Rough Mix)
My New House (Mark’s Rough Mix)
Paintwork (Rough Mix)
Ma Riley (Rough Mix)
Spoilt Victorian Childe (Rough Mix)
L.A. (Rough Mix)
What You Need (Rough Mix)
Edie (Rough Mix)
Cruiser’s Creek (Long Version)
LA (Take 2)
Bombast (Blackwing Version)
Paintwork (Gloss)

CD3 SINGLES and SESSIONS
Couldn’t Get Ahead
Rollin’ Dany
Petty (Thief) Lout
Cruiser’s Creek (Single version)
Vixen
Ma Riley
I Am Barmy (Long Version)
Cruiser’s Creek (4.16 edit version)
Spoilt Victorian Child (Peel session)
Gut Of The Quantifier (Peel session)
Couldn’t Get Ahead (Peel session)
Cruiser’s Creek (Peel session)
L.A. (Peel session)
What You Need (Peel session)

MES is right; bad Fall reviews are HILARIOUS!

(Your Future Our Clutter is not one of the best Fall albums, but it's pretty far from "It's a Small World" on endless repeat...)

yeah, and I've done BOTH!

"There's artsy music out there worth listening to..."

Poor kids just can't get past the surface noise and random production.

I'll grant them the drunken old man comparison since that's actually correct.

Ladies and gentlemen - our future music critics, helping us navigate between Justin Bieber and The Fall!

they don't deserve rock and roll

hahaha that's kind of a great review

brilliant album obv

Hi, you guys are brilliant. This is the best review I have ever heard of a Fall album. The first three minutes is especially impressive. Not only is what you say interesting, but the way you say it is cool, and funny also. I laughed more times in that three minutes than entire Hollywood movies. The whole piece is great though, I think you really put together a coherent, well argued position.

I've got 87 Fall albums.

graeme10000 3 months ago

thermonuclear truth bomb :D

This thread really picked up my obsession with the group. I haven't heard the new one yet since with bands I really like I generally try to pick up the albums in chronological order, I swear I have like OCD about this. But with The Fall it seems pretty much useless so I'm kind of all over the place. I have Levitate and Country on the Click, both of which I think are great, especially the latter. The original "Recovery Kit" with the heavy string synth just floors me, though I think "Recovery Kit 2" is overall put together better. "Theme From Sparta FC" is an all time classic. Are the other 90's/00's albums like this???

I love late Fall as much as the rest. Any random ten-year slice out of the Fall's career has enough brilliance to justify their rep.

At least one of those two guys in the video review is gonna end up a Fall fan.

^^^ otm. Lord knows I could't stand them when I first heard them, now it's mad lurve!

I don't know LJ, I was just listening to Chino last night; I mean, if you can't get the point of that...

I commented on the video thusly:

I love this album AND this review. Keep at it boys! The Fall is something dear to me but I know they're not for everyone, even those with otherwise-impressive tastes ;)

My 3 favourite tracks, for what it's worth, are Mexico Wax Solvent (the way the keyboards and guitars build up to this luminous mass of sound...ah man), Chino (so dark and menacing, those guitars like banshees) and above all the staggering Weather Report 2 which the first time I heard it made my jaw drop with awed disbelief :)

so yeah, Chino is one of my faves too - astonishing song

you were definitely the one that helped me to realize that the best songs were towards the end...

yeah even funnel of love is awesome - first 6 tracks are the hors d'oeuvre

listened to your future our clutter again, what a nice album