The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent (March 2008)

Hopefully, that is.

http://www.visi.com/fall/news/fallnews.html :

Sanctuary has announced details of the new Fall album. It's not "Latch Key Kid" after all. Imperial Wax Solvent. Released on Castle, hopefully in March.

Groundhogs cover? whoa.

No more Narnack?

"Senior Twilight Stock Replacer"

the fall random song-title generator strikes again!

narnack is no more, no?

i'm more excited for the book:

http://nickstone.blogspot.com/

love this quote:

I sensed it long before it happened.
They reminded me of the recent England team: the Beckham generation; that lot that fucked up so spectacularly in 2006 because they couldn't do what they were paid to do; because they couldn't spend time away from their birds; that lot who couldn't stop crying.
Lads with no guts, I can't stand them .....

I was just wondering when the new Fall album would be out the other day...

haha yeah it's like jandek everytime i think of looking there's been 3 more released since the last time i checked.

I thought narnack just switched coasts, their website says "coming in january 2008"

I remain positive that this may be good, even if I think the group is currently in the biggest musical slump of their career.

I don't think I've listened to anything since The Unutterable (2001) more than once or twice.

I've enjoyed the last 3 albums.

It would be sweet if MoM dueds were somehow involved in this piece of shit.

Are they involved??
I know absolutely nothing about this album.

Von Sudenfed /= The Fall

Tromatic Reflexxions was better than any Fall album since the one I just mentioned.

Von Sudenfed /= The Fall

ya rly.

HOORAY.

What do we know about the new English boys he's drawn into the fold?

One of them supplies archaic words and he's taken four months off the message board he frequents.

and also

"On 1st June 2007 Presley, Barbato and McCord played their most recent gig with The Fall. Although no official statement by the band has been made they are now assumed to have ceased being part of the Fall, with the line up of all gigs since having consisted of Smith, Poulou, Spurr, Greenway and Melling. Melling and Spurr play together in the group MotherJohn."

Members
Mark E. Smith, Elena Poulou, Dave Spurr, Pete Greenway, Keiron Melling

I know he's always switched members a ton but it seems in the past 5 years he's been switching way more than he used to. It used to be like one or two members would go and come at a time, now he loses whole bands every few months. He must need the life force to exist.

from Mark: "Tell the blaggers (ed: I think that's what he wrote) that the band opted for JAM not Ground Hogs."

I have no idea what that means. But there you go.

The Jam also have a song called Strange Town.

I think it means they covered that instead of the Groundhogs one.

or wait, maybe it means the band wanted to, but they didn't in the end

They (OK, He) did a sort of version of "Town called Malice" back in the day.

THe only post-Unutterable album I haven't liked that much was the last one. Yes, I liked Are You Are Missing Winner! I liked Fall Heads Roll a lot.

Agreed, I couldn't get with the last one. It didn't help that it was a terrible recording (not in a Missing Winner bad-good way) The levels were all over the place from one song to the next...

b-b-but "TLC" was a concept album about recording a lousy LP!

Ha yeah

I dug Missing Winner too, but Heads Roll and TLC were both sunk by their very very average backing bands.

Pete Greenway

how cool would it be if Peter GreenAway was in the fall???

I didn't like the last two albums much, but I thought County on the Click or real new fall album or whatever it was called was excellent, on par with the Unutterable, which was also great; missing winner was annoyingly badly recorded (it sounds purposeful but that doesn't make it okay). the last two albums were kind of generic sounding to me.

and by generic i mean "they sound like fall albums but don't have enough character". they're arguably very well played and well recorded, so they're kind of like code:selfish and shiftwork...well done, but faceless

by the way: release date = April 28th

(but it's, er, out there somewhere already)

yes, and it's really good. much better than their last one.

i'm really liking this a lot so far.

yeah it's very good, though not even - a few tracks could have been thrown to the trash can,especialy those with the overuse of electronics.
also, lots of captain beefheart voice imitations and some female vocals,which is great with me.

bloody hell. TLC is still sitting on my "should probably check this out" list; never quite got round to it (despite being told i'd like it.) can't he give it a rest for a bit? :)

Keiron Melling

for a second i thought i knew that name, but realised it's just something similar. that said: i guess if i wait aroung long enough, one of my mates -- one of everybody's mates -- is going to end up in the fall at some point.

i actually like the electronic songs a lot. taurig is my favorite i think.

"i'm a 50 year old man and i like it, i'm a 50 year old man, what you gonna do about it"

LOL

^^^ damn you.

aww i got nothin' but love for MES (and for oldsters)

Cover is crappy as usual :-)

http://i27.tinypic.com/xbmurc.jpg

Actually the cover is the best since RNFLP, the last album cover being the nadir.

It's a remarkably consistent album for The Fall, whose output since 1990 is roughly 50/50 between brilliant and throw-away on each album. IWS really has no filler, though stuff like "Latch Key Kid", while fun, is no great addition to the canon. It's also consistent in that it has no stand-out track, you could argue a half-dozen choices for the best one. "Wolf Kidult Man" is my favorite but it may not be in a week.

I'll start a Fall in the 21st century thread later. Their output this decade is almost complete and is a fascinating trajectory.

OK, I am excited to hear this now.

Definitely the best Fall album of the 2000s. I really liked Country On The Click, but IWS is a lot more fun. 50 Year Old Man almost has a Faust Tapes feel to it.

aww i got nothin' but love for MES (and for oldsters)

-- 6335, Thursday, March 27, 2008 2:36 PM (Thursday, March 27, 2008 2:36 PM)

I just wanted to post that lyric first. ;_;

I think IWS is slightly better than Real New Fall LP, waaaaaaay better than every other 2000s release.

listen to the snare crack cock:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZTu1HYGexEE

I'd like to hear what MES' take on Alton Towers is, if nothing else. Pre-supposing it is actually about Alton Towers, that is. I like to think he's been on the log flume once or twice anyway.

the Real New Fall is prob. the best 2000's Fall record

'the unutterable', 'real new fall LP' and 'fall heads roll' are all better than this

M@tt otm. I absolutely love the country teasers though.

the CT are like the fall meets minimal rockabilly.they have one good record, can't remember its name now

cuz it has two titles

i like the country teasers, at least what i've heard

Satan Is Real Again or Feeling Good About Bad Thoughts

and a funny record too

oh I thought it was Full Moon Empty Sports Bag or Secret Weapon Revealed at Last

i meant teh one with the "Watch while the credit system fucks you in the ass" line.

I haven't heard the Country Teasers but I believe some members of CT were in another band called Male Nurse who were absolutely fantastic and sounded very much like the Fall.

The country teasers live album was pretty good, i remember.

country teasers are real nice fellas. played a show w/ them, they had a few songs where all 3 guitar players played slide, it was janky but good

The Fall have the best album titles ever.

i've heard this might be the best album of the year...fifteen days later whuddayou guys think???

the fall don't really make "best albums of the year"

i saw clinic at triptych yesterday, doing their great if slightly underwhelming clinic thang. true, i was very drunk, but it occurred to me: how awesome would clinic-as-the-fall be? seriously, next time MES sacks the band, i reckon he should look into this.

oddly, this idea doesn't seem as revelatory some 24 hours on, in the sober half-light of a sunday evening. but still. i'm going to bang on about it a bit.

Fuck yeah Grimly! I am SO THERE! You are bloody right. Drink or not.

Mark E. Smith with Clinic, folks it's got to happen.

excellent! a convert already. dude, let's lobby MES :)

Yes! Let's lobby the ol' codger! I've a feeling there's a mutual love of Velvet Underground involved, so we've already got a weapon up our sleeve.

Clinic would work.

I have also daydreamed about him making records w/ the Magic Band and the A-Frames.

Loving the new one. It's no "Tromatic Reflexxions"....yet.

Getting better!

Oh God, I had no idea at all he put out a new album. I don't pay attention to anything.

Fall Heads Roll pwn3d, haven't heard anything since. Must. Get. On this.

bump for hadrian .

I like this about 10000x more than Tromatic Reflexwhatever and more than any Fall album since The Unutterable.

you have a steep slope of enjoyment

Thanky, Sleeve

I dug the Von Sudenfed thing but I agree this is the best since Unutterable.

Maybe people have "revitalized Fall blah blah" exhaustion from the Real New Fall LP and Fall Heads Roll and are missing out on a career peak. Or last year's turd just scared them away... (Is this even getting a U.S. release?)

Every time that last section of 50 Year Old Man drops in I wonder why nobody else SWINGS like this....

Is this really an SRTF?

Hahahah! I think mike-t-diva coined a new ILM acronym!

Doesn't really qualify as such if you buy into the idea that MES returning to form is more periodic than stunning...

...but no less satisfying

PRTF BNLS

the North will rise again, aiyah aiyah...

sD I bow before your Fall wisdom as demonstrated on teh Hotel Bloedel thread but I have no idea what you mean. In your opinion, should I be liking the other oughties records more and this less? That's how I parsed it.

Or were you just teasing me about the 10000x more part?

Anyway "I've Been Duped" just kills me every time, and '50 Year Old Man" does the same. It's maddeningly intangible what I like about this record more than the other recent ones, but it just seems more convincing, less lazy, like MES finally had something to prove instead of coasting on his mumble.

"Is this really an SRTF?"

Early days (only listened to it twice so far) but I rather suspect that this album going to end up being appraised more frequently in terms of what it represents a Significant Departure From.... rather than anything that it might also be a Return To....

xpost My own "slope of enjoyment" from the last record to this one is about as steep as it gets.

Generally I can get at least SOMETHING out of even the "worst" Fall records — for me the discography on a "Fall Index" would resemble a nice hillscape...but I found Reformation TLC just totally sub-valley unlistenable and this one I can't seem to burn out on.

I don't understand how it could be regarded as a "departure" in anything other than quality.

The only real constant from record to record over the years is the diatribe. In style terms they've been all over the place. I'm not sure what's at variance on this one, nothing new: a dance number, the obligatory cover, a few garagey rave-ups, just....better.

It's definitely a hell of a lot better than Reformation Post TLC

Maybe it was coming back to The Fall after so many years away, but in 2000 "The Unutterable" seemed like a real high point to me, maybe one the handful of the very best albums of theirs. Smith's drunken-sounding ranting seemed crazier and better than it had in years, and the lyrics were great.

No album since then has seemed quite as good to me. Tromatic Reflexxions (where he REALLY sound demented) comes close. I have to say, though, that I like that he constantly switches bands. Every new album sounds different, and each one is interesting in its own way. This new one seems like a relative high point to me, too.

I listened to this at the gym today. It worked out great. I like the fact that it starts out with a mellow first track and then BAM! Pedal to the metal.

U.S Release information? Anyone?

Thanks.

As of last week, my local shop had no info on that.

been listening to this a lot lately. it's sooooooo good. the second half can get a little less than essential sometimes, but sill...

ok. 50-year-old man is perhaps the SINGLE GREATEST FALL SONG EVER. it's like he's been waiting half a century just to write that.

i'm three tracks into this album and it's fucking blinding.

taurig is unexpected diversionary genius.

this is exactly the album i never dared hope it would be. wow.

"my boss has the imagination of a GNAT".

Agreed on 50 Year Old Man - you can almost hear some glee in his voice, as if he can't believe he gets to say such a thing.

A long while later...

"I've Been Duped" still really kills me. Vocals put me in mind of an imaginary band where Elina Löwensohn is the lead singer, which makes me want such a band to exist.

There's something about the rhythm of vocal delivery coming up to the chorus that occasionally makes me think of SY's "My Friend Goo" but I'm usually able to banish thoughts of that from my head while listening.

Live versions have been amazing as well. The first night last year at the Hackney Empire was incredible - ended up with swirling droning keyboards and an almost motorik sounding rhythm. It went on for ages and it THROBBED.

You'd think they could come out with a great live album representing the 00s! There's enough bootlegs to choose from at least.

The album received some press attention when, due to a pressing error, the music of the album was recorded onto the first shipment of Faryl Smith's debut album Faryl. The record label, Universal Classics and Jazz, was said to have "severe words" with the pressing plant.[3] The incident attracted international attention.[4]

Post above is hilarious and, it became more hilarious once I discovered who Faryl Smith is. Something like this could only happen to The Fall.

Ok, yeah, I just googled her and that is truly something that would only happen in the weird and wonderful world of M.E.S.

ok. 50-year-old man is perhaps the SINGLE GREATEST FALL SONG EVER. it's like he's been waiting half a century just to write that.

i'm three tracks into this album and it's fucking blinding.

― grimly fiendish, Tuesday, 12 August 2008 12:39 (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Today, I am exactly here.

£3 in Fopp!

(And that'll be a track on the next new Fall LP!)