Let's talk about the new Fall LP "Fall Heads Roll"

The requisite garage-rock riffs are in place, but the songs feels sort of rushed and unfinished. And clean. I loved the daylights out of "The Real New Fall LP", I guess I was just expecting something a little more challenging than this.

Or: The Fall - A Decent Simulation.

Or: "Welcome to the Fall - '80s, '90s!"

Mark Grout OTM, come to think of it. I've heard that about their late 90s releases.

I don't think so. I think the Hanley/Scanlon/Wolstencroft + whoever else was in the band lineup was generally pretty cool. I really like the Extricate/Shift Work/Code Selfish/Infotainment series of albums. Maybe the one after that seemed like they were just kind of going on doing what they were doing, but the one after that when Brix came back (Cerebral Caustic) was excellent.

"Aw, spit."

"Howls of derisive laughter, Bruce."

the version of 'blindness' is a lot better on the peel set, the album version is a bit of a darker and barer take on it, and MES gets into the track a lot more, which is a shame.

but the rest of it thunders on regardless - theyre channeling repeated riffs, synth blips and thundering drums this time round rather than a slightly more varied feel on the real new fall lp.

nothing else is a disappointment, and some of it is classic - pacifying joint, ya wanner, what about us and clasp hands in particular, the cheekily reworded frankie valli cover is fun, and even the clipped reggae of ride away is captivating.

Never got the chance? Every artist gets a chance to distinguish himself or herself every time they record a song, much less put out a whole album.

I can see saying that The Real New Fall LP has more good material than The Light User Syndrome (not their best LP), but it's kind of like saying that the Beatlemania Soundtrack album has more good material than Let It Be.

New here, huh?

I wonder, Tim, if MES hasn't handicapped himself by setting the bar too high, in terms of expectations of constant reinvention. I mean, Christ, how many different ways are there to fuck with rock music? He's certainly making records as interesting as any of the other codger-upsetters — Sonic Youth or The Ex or Pere Ubu. It seems to me he's settling into (and EARNED) a Dylanesque standard-bearer/variations-on-a-theme phase, and I for one would be happy to hear him do nothing but Hasil Adkins and Eddie Cochrane covers from here on out...

My impression of the Fall nowadays is that he's just not trying very hard at all. He seems to think that the best thing for him to do is to just round up whatever people happen to be around in the pub or something to be in the band. There aren't some more inspired people around that he could work with?

I think you're right about the MES MO (local find in pub), but hasn't that basically ALWAYS been the MO? It strikes me that this new lineup is at a disadvantage not in terms of assertion or chops or character, but disadvantaged in the same respect ANY band trying to make groovy avant garde rock in 2005 is.

"There's repetition in our music and we're never gonna lose it!"

I think there was basically one big reinvention which was the progression from the band that did Room to Live and Perverted by Language to the band that did The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall and This Nation's Saving Grace. After that, it was a slow evolution. Kurious Oranj is not that big of a difference from Frenz Experiment. Infotainment Scan is not so different from Code: Selfish. The dance stuff dates back to "Hit the North" and stuff.

"I think you're right about the MES MO (local find in pub), but hasn't that basically ALWAYS been the MO?"

Probably, but it worked out well for him for a long time. Then, frankly, he just put together some mediocre bands. Honestly, I thought the more recent lineup was promising, too, and that Are You Are Missing Winner actually showed a little character. The Real New Fall LP is mostly just simulation Fall, though (apart from all the grebt group vocal work never before heard on a Fall LP!).

I've come around to liking every single Fall album though, so I'm hoping it happens here. "Ride Away" is the immediate stand out so far, probably the best use of "space" employed in a Fall record in a long time.

What is the significance of this?

I loved the Real Fall LP band, they have a great sound and the song in which they read complaint letters sent to the band is hilarious. Haven't heard Interim, but if the "every-other-record-is-good" law, this one should be great.

I prefer Pander Panda Panzer to Fall Heads Roll.

is that not every Fall album? i think i made this my 5th favourite album of the year on the ILM poll.

weird (but clearly awesome).

I dunno, I like the fist track best, the rest is "the fall doing what they do best" to be fair, but I like it when they do "unexpected".

Plenty love for "I can hear the grass grow" but I wish Mark had got the words right (like on the peel session version he did)

Particularly the less Midnight Aspen and Early Days of Channel Fuehrer, but everything really apart from the very first track.

Blindness is one of the hardest beats of all time

this album still holds up imo

I know it’s tedious at this point to insist on the supremacy of the Peel version of Blindness but - peel version or death imo

It's not tedious if it's true!

There's lots to love on this album, it was a bit overlooked coming on the heels of the wonderful "Real New Fall LP".

Midnight Aspen is gorgeous

Blindness definitely became one of their iconic live songs

It’s true the Peel Session was never bettered. Though since the groove could stand to go on forever, played live it seemed to bring out some of that old MES, toasting astute/lyrical/funny stuff over it. Sharpened him somehow.

Since we’re at it: honorable mention has to go to Roots Manuva’s Witness (1 Hope)

...which itself was a lift from the Dr Who theme music. Which is a neat arrangement for me because MES was how I imagined a real life Dr Who would actually be like, if you see what I mean.

I think I may sorta kinda maybe finally getting into this band? or maybe it is just that I am obsessed with the Peel session "Blindness", listening to it again & again & again. what other Fall songs are like this? with a groovy grind and a Loki-like malevolence?

perverted by language and the b sides from that era were all pretty driving and forceful in that sense. you might get on with brix era.

The Peel Blindness is a great entry point.

You could try the version of Jerusalem off “I Am Kurious Oranj”. More attack, less loping, but still great.

Words of Expectation, also a Peel session. More discursive, less threatening, but still with a clipped and lenten danger to it.

Realm of Dusk (ROD) or Gross Chapel — British Grenadiers both off Bend:Sinister.

Hostile off The Light User Syndrome.

Dr Buck’s Letter - The Unutterable (and you could try Serum off that as well, great tense sci-if)

Reformation off Reformation Post TLC.

PBL is a good shout. Garden and Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot

WHAT.
YOU.
NEED.

off This Nation’s Saving Grace.

mainly cos of the bass. again, that tense loping funk.

Nice this is nice, will dig for these !

"The Classical"

Dedication Not Medication off their penultimate album might be what you're after. It is badass evil.

(And both 4 1/2 Inch off the recently-reissued Levitation and The Crying Marshall off The Marshall Suite are basically badass techno remixes of enormous bass grooves that work perfectly)

very much enjoying right now how much malignant force smith gets into the marching song of British Grenadiers.

that one is all-time yeah

tho i should say i still remember the hairs-on-my-neck thrill of hearing blindness for the first time in that session. there was always an undertow of “yeah not as good as they used to be but i still like it” but the cryptic terror of blindness, it’s intensity, was completely mesmerising. hypnotised as by a snake.

The Peel Blindness is utterly epic, you'll soon descend into the madness that is The Fall's catalog. You'll almost certainly want the entire 6 disc Peel box set. Oh yes, it's that good.

I'll just add the ENORMOUS kosmische workout Auto Chip 14-15 (also on the penultimate album) to the list. I'm currently listening to it while watching Jofra Archer do his thing. HOW BAD ARE ENGLISH FAST BOWLERS

Sorry for being a bit off topic but is there some general consensus which version of The Real New Fall LP / Country on the Click is the best? The US one is apparently remastered?

lol mare’s nest. there’s actually three versions i think?

there was a widely leaked early bootleg which is great. v different versions of Mike’s Love Xexagon, Mountain Energei, Green-Eyed Loco Man and The Past. All great imo.

My recollection is that Smith was annoyed and re-recorded on that basis (tho that seems unlikely now i write it). And that’s also great. I would struggle to say which versions of the above songs i prefer.

US Narnack album (as per peel blindness) i *think* was largely the same? apart from having the excellent and bitchy For the Record on it.

Different versions of Recovery Kit on each one as well? My memory fails a bit.

sorry that re-recording was the U.K. released version and i think that’s the one that the Narnack US release (v different cover too) was largely similar to.

I'd go with the US release strictly because it's got the uber-improved "Sparta FC #2".

Details of the LP versions here: http://thefall.org/discography/data/album24.html

Thanks!

ah thanks Gerald. For the Record = Portugal and id forgotten it had the excellent Mod. Mock Goth on it. (that protein protection christmas EP is great)

Just to be a Fall nerd, I do prefer the "Country On The Click" (the original title of the leaked album) versions of "Contraflow" and "The Past". They're a bit harder than the RNFLP versions.

Damn, you're going to make me listen to nothing but The Fall during my upcoming vacation!

same actually. particularly contraflow.

"We take Viagra
and go to Cambersands
Our shirts are well
out of our pants"

I kinda want to suggest Before the Moon Falls off Dragnet as a sort of perpetual-motorik impending doom generator.