The Fall are one of the bands that I`ve decided to give a really good listen to lately, as my knowledge of them was extremely limited and this guide seems to be a good way to listen to them and its well presented to get soembody into the band. I`ve listened to the first three albums now and this is my opinion:
Live At The Witch Trials- This was the only Fall album that I really knew from before and always thought it to be a good and polished album, but not necessarily something that I`d want to listen to again and again, which is probably why I never listened to more stuff by the Fall over the years. This time around, I found it much more to my liking and really appreciating the lyrical angst of ME Smith and in many ways it is a classic debut.
Dragnet- Liked it instantly with its muddy and raw sounding garage rock, a lot more basic than the debut and its below par production adds to its charm along with the lyrics of ME Smith again. This is certainly an album more than the debut that makes me want to listen to more stuff by the band. Its the sort of album that takes a step back but a step forward at the same time.......great stuff.
Grotesque (After the Gramme)- Builds off the previous album and its more experimental but without doubt its an absolute classic, as ME Smith gives a manical Lydon style vocal display that is breathtaking from start to finish. At the moment this is the album that I`ll compare all Fall albums to and the best of the three.
I`ve also actually decided to listen to these albums in the context of their time as well, ie...I`m also listening to a lot of stuff by Killing Joke, PIL, Joy Division etc as well to fit this material into the right time context.
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