Music Banter - View Single Post - Urbans Rough Guide To The Wild & Wonderful World Of The Fall

Urban Hat€monger ? · 01-19-2008, 08:37 PM

Perverted By Language - Rough Trade Records - 12th December 1983

Album Tracklisting: Eat Y'Self Fitter / Neighbourhood of Infinity / Garden / Hotel Blöedel / Smile / I Feel Voxish / Tempo House (Recorded live at The Haçienda, Manchester July 1983) / Hexen Definitive-Strife Knot

Re-issue Extras: The Man Whose Head Expanded / Ludd Gang (7" Single June 1983)
Kicker Conspiracy / Wings (7" Single October 1983)
Pilsner Trail (PBL recording session)
Smile / Garden / Hexen Definitive-Strife Knot / Eat Y'Self Fitter (Peel Session 23rd March 1983)
Garden (1998 Remix)
Neighbourhood Of Infinity (live in Munich April 1984) / Smile (live in New York May 1983) / Tempo House (live in New York May 1983) / Perverted By Language (live in London December 1983) / Wings (live in London March 1982) / Backdrop (live in Brighton October 1983)

Band Line Up: Mark E. Smith - Vocals , Piano , Violin / Craig Scanlon - Guitar , Vocals / Steve Hanley - Bass / Paul Hanley - Drums , Keyboards / Karl Burns - Drums , Bass / Brix Smith - Guitar & lead vocals on Hotel Blöedel , Backing vocals on Eat Y'Self Fitter

Critique: Perverted By Language is an often overlooked Fall album and generally considered to be the last album of the old style Fall. 1983 was a year of great change for The Fall. The biggest one being Mark meeting & marrying Brix Smith and her slowing integrating herself into the band. On this occasion most of the album was already finished before she joined so her input is minimal. However she does get to co -write and sing lead vocals on Hotel Blöedel , which is a shame really because at this point in time she can't sing a note. The main other change being the return to Rough Trade mainly due to Kamera Records being in financial trouble. Smith enjoyed being on Kamera and once said that leaving Kamera was the only time in his life he was ever sad to leave a record company. The patched up relationship with Rough Trade didn't last long & shortly after the albums release they left the label again over an argument about a long form video the band wanted to put out.
Although The Fall themselves were in a transitional period it doesn't really reflect this on the album with a couple of the songs regually being featuring in the live set as early as 2 years previously.
There is a difference in sound to this album. The songs are a lot longer than usual , most clock in at around 6 to 8 minutes. A lot of them tend to be driven by the bass with the guitar going along with it while Mark E Smith rants his lyrics over the top of it. This accounts for at least half the songs on the album. It almost sounds like they used up all the commercial songs to put on the singles that came out before the albums release and these songs were what was left over.
There are however songs in between to break things up a bit Eat Y'Self Fitter is a fantastic opener with it's drum heavy and stop start riff , this goes straight into Neighbourhood Of Infinity , a wonderful nonsense song with such a cool bassline driving it on. Later on in the album there's I Feel Voxish which is a decent stab at an catchy uptempo rock song which the band would go on to perfect over the next few years.
The extras on this album really bring out the best of this time period The Man Whose Head Expanded is another of The Fall's most well known singles and could be considered an autobiographical sequel to (How I wrote) Elastic Man. Kicker Conspiracy brings to life football in the early 80s with hooliganism rampant & shitty stadiums , a much truer representation of English football than New Order ever managed. That single also being shared with Wings , one of my favourite Fall songs with a wonderful video which is just Mark sitting in a pub with a pint & a fag miming the words to camera , this has nothing to do with the song whatsoever but fair play to him for making a video and getting a days boozing in at the same time. The usual live stuff is of varying quality and there's the version of Eat Y'Self Fitter which caused John Peel to faint when he heard it.

Songs You Need:

Eat Y'Self Fitter - It's about not being able to get in rock clubs and not knowing how to use a computer ... i think.

Neighbourhood Of Infinity - A song about giant moths & listening to Link Wray on Saturdays all wrapped up in an ultra cool bassline.

Smile - The very notion of MES telling anyone to smile, let alone shrieking it down your ears on a regular basis...HA.

The Man Whose Head Expanded - You think judging by the intro you're about to get a synth pop songs , then BLAM the drums & guitars kick in.

Kicker Conspiracy - Possibly the only song in the world that mentions former English FA chairman Bert Millichip. This song is all about the drums.

Wings - A wonderful nonsense song about buying a pair of time travelling wings , going back into the past & changing history then coming back and finding that your trip has changed the present.

Verdict: Rating Perverted By Language is a bit of a tricky one. Firstly because of the nature of the songs on it tend to be long & repetitive. That isn't a criticism of them , it just means you have to be in the right frame of mind to want to hear them. Secondly the addition of the two singles really boost the quality of the package as a whole. There's only really one song that I would consider bad and that's Hotel Blöedel. I think on the whole this is a good collection of Fall songs with a couple of gems but not a great one. I think i'll have to give it two separate ratings this time around.
5.5/10 (For the original album)
7/10 (For the package as a whole)

01-19-2008, 08:37 PM	#32 (permalink)
Urban Hat€monger ? The Sexual Intellectual Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Somewhere cooler than you Posts: 18,605	Perverted By Language - Rough Trade Records - 12th December 1983 Album Tracklisting: Eat Y'Self Fitter / Neighbourhood of Infinity / Garden / Hotel Blöedel / Smile / I Feel Voxish / Tempo House (Recorded live at The Haçienda, Manchester July 1983) / Hexen Definitive-Strife Knot Re-issue Extras: The Man Whose Head Expanded / Ludd Gang (7" Single June 1983) Kicker Conspiracy / Wings (7" Single October 1983) Pilsner Trail (PBL recording session) Smile / Garden / Hexen Definitive-Strife Knot / Eat Y'Self Fitter (Peel Session 23rd March 1983) Garden (1998 Remix) Neighbourhood Of Infinity (live in Munich April 1984) / Smile (live in New York May 1983) / Tempo House (live in New York May 1983) / Perverted By Language (live in London December 1983) / Wings (live in London March 1982) / Backdrop (live in Brighton October 1983) Band Line Up: Mark E. Smith - Vocals , Piano , Violin / Craig Scanlon - Guitar , Vocals / Steve Hanley - Bass / Paul Hanley - Drums , Keyboards / Karl Burns - Drums , Bass / Brix Smith - Guitar & lead vocals on Hotel Blöedel , Backing vocals on Eat Y'Self Fitter Critique: Perverted By Language is an often overlooked Fall album and generally considered to be the last album of the old style Fall. 1983 was a year of great change for The Fall. The biggest one being Mark meeting & marrying Brix Smith and her slowing integrating herself into the band. On this occasion most of the album was already finished before she joined so her input is minimal. However she does get to co -write and sing lead vocals on Hotel Blöedel , which is a shame really because at this point in time she can't sing a note. The main other change being the return to Rough Trade mainly due to Kamera Records being in financial trouble. Smith enjoyed being on Kamera and once said that leaving Kamera was the only time in his life he was ever sad to leave a record company. The patched up relationship with Rough Trade didn't last long & shortly after the albums release they left the label again over an argument about a long form video the band wanted to put out. Although The Fall themselves were in a transitional period it doesn't really reflect this on the album with a couple of the songs regually being featuring in the live set as early as 2 years previously. There is a difference in sound to this album. The songs are a lot longer than usual , most clock in at around 6 to 8 minutes. A lot of them tend to be driven by the bass with the guitar going along with it while Mark E Smith rants his lyrics over the top of it. This accounts for at least half the songs on the album. It almost sounds like they used up all the commercial songs to put on the singles that came out before the albums release and these songs were what was left over. There are however songs in between to break things up a bit Eat Y'Self Fitter is a fantastic opener with it's drum heavy and stop start riff , this goes straight into Neighbourhood Of Infinity , a wonderful nonsense song with such a cool bassline driving it on. Later on in the album there's I Feel Voxish which is a decent stab at an catchy uptempo rock song which the band would go on to perfect over the next few years. The extras on this album really bring out the best of this time period The Man Whose Head Expanded is another of The Fall's most well known singles and could be considered an autobiographical sequel to (How I wrote) Elastic Man. Kicker Conspiracy brings to life football in the early 80s with hooliganism rampant & shitty stadiums , a much truer representation of English football than New Order ever managed. That single also being shared with Wings , one of my favourite Fall songs with a wonderful video which is just Mark sitting in a pub with a pint & a fag miming the words to camera , this has nothing to do with the song whatsoever but fair play to him for making a video and getting a days boozing in at the same time. The usual live stuff is of varying quality and there's the version of Eat Y'Self Fitter which caused John Peel to faint when he heard it. Songs You Need: Eat Y'Self Fitter - It's about not being able to get in rock clubs and not knowing how to use a computer ... i think. Neighbourhood Of Infinity - A song about giant moths & listening to Link Wray on Saturdays all wrapped up in an ultra cool bassline. Smile - The very notion of MES telling anyone to smile, let alone shrieking it down your ears on a regular basis...HA. The Man Whose Head Expanded - You think judging by the intro you're about to get a synth pop songs , then BLAM the drums & guitars kick in. Kicker Conspiracy - Possibly the only song in the world that mentions former English FA chairman Bert Millichip. This song is all about the drums. Wings - A wonderful nonsense song about buying a pair of time travelling wings , going back into the past & changing history then coming back and finding that your trip has changed the present. Verdict: Rating Perverted By Language is a bit of a tricky one. Firstly because of the nature of the songs on it tend to be long & repetitive. That isn't a criticism of them , it just means you have to be in the right frame of mind to want to hear them. Secondly the addition of the two singles really boost the quality of the package as a whole. There's only really one song that I would consider bad and that's Hotel Blöedel. I think on the whole this is a good collection of Fall songs with a couple of gems but not a great one. I think i'll have to give it two separate ratings this time around. 5.5/10 (For the original album) 7/10 (For the package as a whole) __________________ Urb's RYM Stuff Most people sell their soul to the devil, but the devil sells his soul to Nick Cave.