Urbans Rough Guide To The Wild & Wonderful World Of The Fall
 

There seems to be quite a bit of an interest of The Fall here recently , and i`ve also been looking for something to work on for a while so this seems a good idea. I am not going to write a detailed breakdown of every single song they have ever recorded. I was thinking more of giving a bit of background info on each release and highlighting the best and most interesting songs recorded by the band so that anyone wanting to work their way through the whole minefield that is The Fall discography they can have some sort of starting point , and also to look at some of the extras included on the ongoing re-issue of all their albums by Sanctuary Records. So anyway to start this off....


Original Album Tracklisting : Frightened / Crap Rap 2-Like to Blow / Rebellious Jukebox / No Xmas for John Quays / Mother-Sister! / Industrial Estate / Underground Medecin / Two Steps Back / Live at the Witch Trials / Futures and Pasts / Music Scene

Re-issue Extras : Bingo Master's Break-Out! / Psycho Mafia / Repetition (Bingo Master's Break-Out! E.P. released August 1978)
It's The New Thing / Various Times (7" Single Released November 1978)
Dresden Dolls / Psycho Mafia / Industrial Estate (Rehersal Tape Summer 1977)
Stepping Out / Last Orders (Short Circuit - Live At The Electric Circus Compilation Album, October 1977)
Rebellious Jukebox / Mother-Sister! / Industrial Estate / Futures And Pasts (First John Peel Session 15th June 1978)
Put Away / Mess Of My / No Xmas For John Keys / Like To Blow (Second John Peel Session 6th December 1978)
Like To Blow / Stepping Out / Two Steps Back /Mess Of My / It's The New Thing / Various Times / Bingo Master's Break-Out! / Frightened / Industrial Estate / Psycho Mafia / Music Scene / Mother-Sister! (Live At Mr Pickwicks, Liverpool 22nd August 1978)

Band Line Up: Mark E. Smith - vocals / Martin Bramah - guitar, backing vocals / Marc Riley - bass / Karl Burns - drums / Yvonne Pawlett - keyboards

Critique: A lot of things had happened in The Fall in the preceeding 2 years before 'Witch Trials' was finally released. 'Witch Trials' comes at a time when most of the core of the original band consisting of Martin Bramah ,Tony Friel & Una Baines had left or were in the process of leaving. The album was recorded in a single day in December 1978 and by the time it was released 3 months later Bramah had left the band , putting Smith in full charge of the band.
The album itself is almost like a false dawn for the band in some ways as it is more polished & better musically than the band ever were until Brix Smith joined the band in the mid 80s. This is probably due to the influence of Bramah having as much say in the band as Mark E Smith (or at least trying to).
The original band members feature heavily on this album co writing 8 of the tracks available here ,with Smith writing 2 on his own. Only the albums closing track the 8 minute long 'Music Scene' is written by the whole band that recorded this album.
The albums sound is also totally different to anything the band have recorded since. The electric piano & the bass dominate the sound with the MES`s vocals and the guitars almost in the background which works well in the more progressive songs on the album such as 'Frightened' ' Two Steps Back' & ' Music Scene' , but tends to sound odd during the more punk rock songs such as 'Industrial Estate' & 'No Xmas For John Keys'. But it does give the band a unique sound.

Of the extras on the album The Bingo Masters Break Out E.P. is a chance to hear the original band at work , which is sad in a way because it would have been interesting to see the dynamic and the creative tensions between them & Mark E Smith played out over a couple of albums rather than just one E.P. 'It`s The New Thing' was a song summing up Smith's loathing of bands who were more interested in making trendy political statements than writing entertaining music.
The rehersal tape gives the only recorded version of 'Dresden Dolls' where the band like a lot of other punk bands at the time were using nazi imagary to shock. Something that the band quickly decided wasn`t for them and dropped. Stepping Out & Last Orders were two live songs recorded for a Virgin Records compilation and is the bands first recorded appearence on vinyl and are a good indication of the bands early potential.
The two John Peel sessions I will go over in detail later on.
The album closes with a recorded & much bootlegged gig at Mr Pickwicks in Liverpool , which was finally released in 2001 on Smiths own Cog Sinister label as 'Liverpool 78'. It`s interest is that it is the earliest Fall gig to be recorded. However the sound quality is awful and not really worth listening to , but it`s an interesting freebie if anything else.

Songs You Need

Frightened - A lovely low key brooding song that slowly builds up until the extended guitar solo at the end. A good insight as to what MES was feeling taking control of the band at the time.

Crap Rap 2 / Like To Blow - Worth hearing just for the opening line of 'We are The Fall , Northern white crap who talks back , We are not black ...........etc etc etc. A nice energetic early Fall song , but the intro makes it special.

Rebellious Jukebox - The Fall didn`t release singles off albums until the mid 80s. If that hadn`t have been so this would have been the obvious choice of single here.

Mother-Sister! - Another song with a slow build up , so low key that at the start of the song Smith announces when asked what the song is about replies 'err nothing'. Also has a really simple catchy riff too.

Industrial Estate - The Fall at their most 'punk rock' so if you are a fan of that sort of thing this is a good starting point before you get to the weirder stuff.

Underground Medecin - It`s no secret that MES is a fan of Can and I can`t help thinking that this song is influenced by them. With the repetative bassline and Smith ranting in the background I think of Can whenever I hear it. If you`ve heard Father Cannot Yell from the Can album Monster Movie you`ll see what I mean.

Music Scene - If you like songs where bands throw all convention out of the window and do what they hell they like then this is the song for you. 8 minutes long. It`s like an extended jam session with Smith ranting about his contemporaries and his disdain for rock 'stars'.

Psycho Mafia - One of the earliest songs by the band & one of my favourites , as well as being one of the most accessable . It`s just full of energy & aggression and a great introduction to The Fall.

Verdict: Call me biased but I think this is one of the best debut albums ever made. There`s no finding their feet here The Fall know exactly what they want and how to do it. It`s also a great intro to people wanting to get into The Fall because it doesn`t suffer from some of the problems of later albums when it was only MES in control of the band. There is actual quality here , the songs are crafted rather than just written & recorded at seemingly the first opportunity to do so like on some later albums. Things in The Fall changed drastically after this album was released , so as it stands it`s the only album of it`s kind. An album written by a band with Mark E Smith as vocalist rather than Mark E Smith controlling everything. Although I think this is a good thing I doubt The Fall would be the same band had it not happened. So although I love this album i`m glad they never got the chance to repeat it over & over again.
10/10

Nice review I need to pick it up some time.

Hey, I never noticed this before. Very good read, you know yr Fall!

Theyre definitely one of my favorite bands at the moment (I listened to Cerebral Caustic today). My favorite on this album is Rebellious Jukebox, but every song is great. The only album by them that I like more than this is This Nations Savign Grace - but I'm going to try and listen to all their albums (although some seem pretty hard to find) in the next few months, which certainly is a daunting task. So this thread could be helpful.

I'll keep an eye on it for some updates

They might not be that hard to find as you think.

Everything from 1978-1983 has been re-released in the past 3 years, as has most of the 90s stuff. The Mid 80s stuff like This Nations Saving Grace & Bend Sinister has had so many re-releases over the years they`re not hard to find either.
The only difficult albums to find are the ones on Phonogram that came out in the late 80s/early90s like Extricate , Code:Selfish & Shift-Work. And they`re all due for re-release next month.

I've got This Nation's Saving Grace and 50,000 Fall Fans can't be wrong + plus Hex Enduction Hour and Frenz Experiment downloaded from here. Also downloaded about half of the new album for when I saw them, the title track isn't half good live.

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/6...rotatedgg4.jpg http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/2682/dsc00211bq2.jpg http://img474.imageshack.us/img474/5498/dsc00150kl8.jpg

Live in Liverpool

(Notice Mark using two microphones he chucked one of them into the crowd during Reformation so we could join in haha)

Original Album Tracklisting : Psykick Dancehall / A Figure Walks / Printhead / Dice Man / Before The Moon Falls / Your Heart Out / Muzorewi's Daughter / Flat Of Angels / Choc-Stock / Spectre Vs Rector / Put Away

Re-issue Extras : Rowche Rumble / In My Area (7" Single 30th July 1979)
Fiery Jack / 2nd Dark Age / Psykick Dance Hall No. 2(Re-recording of the Album track) (7" Single 10th January 1980)
Rowche Rumble (Take 2) / Rowche Rumble (Take 3) / Rowche Rumble (Take 4) / Rowche Rumble (Take 5) / In My Area (Take 1) / In My Area (Take 2)

Band Line Up: Mark E. Smith - vocals / Marc Riley - guitar, backing vocals / Craig Scanlon - Guitar / Steve Hanley - bass , backing vocals / Mike Leigh - drums

Critique: This is where it really starts. This is where Mark E Smith's version of The Fall begins. The sound is stripped down raw garage rock. The keyboards are gone as has all the polish of the debut album. It`s bleak , it`s cold and MES's vocals are pushed right to the front. To some extent the music comes secondary to Smiths lyrics on this album. Songs like Psykick Dancehall , A Figure Walks & Spectre Vs Rector are all about Smiths interest in the paranormal & the stories of H.P. Lovecraft . Printhead is Smith making fun of journalist who gave a bad review to the It's The New Thing single ,with the wonderful lyrics The singer is a neurotic drinker ,The band little more than a big crashing beat..Dice Man is another attack on the music industry where Smith berates those writing love songs explaining that he`d rather sing horror songs , it also contains an all to true summery of record company policy They stay with the masses , Don't take any chances. And if we are still in any doubt as to how MES feels about the music industry he lets us know yet again on Choc-Stock.
On Muzorewi's Daughter we get to hear MES do his Rock n Roll shreiking in a song about what it would be like to be the daughter of Bishop Muzorewi of Rhodesia (don't ask).Before The Moon Falls is an interesting song where the band take the roles of private eyes. Flat Of Angels is a song about a man hiding in his flat after murdering his wife & Put Away is about being locked up in an asylum.
The extras on the album include the two singles released either side of the album. Rowshe Rumble & In My Area. The latter is an almost psychadelic song and gives some idea to how this album would have sounded if Yvonne Paulette would have played keyboards on this album (She left just after the single was recorded). Listening to this the keyboards don`t really fit the bands sound anymore & sound intrusive. Fiery Jack is a nod in the direction of the next album Grotesque and could almost be autobiographical by Smith only 20 years early.The rest of the extras are made up of different takes and sadly don`t add much to the album

Songs You Need

Psykick Dancehall- A great peice of garage rock performed by a band who sound like they are about to fall apart at any moment.IF you want musicianship you ain't gonna find it here.If you can look past that this is a great song to kick off the album.

Printhead- Another 'The Fall do punk rock' song. Nice catchy riff with MES spitting vitriol at some poor journo.

Flat Of Angels- This is probably the most musical track on the album , featuring both acoustic & slide guitars backed up with a great story in the lyrics. Totally different to anything else on the album.

Spectre vs Rector- Genius , or unlistenable garbage?
Spectre vs Rector is unlike any other song the Fall have done before or since. Recorded in an abandoned warehouse the sound quality is awful , but thats the point. Smiths lyrics are recorded in the studio over the original warehouse recordings.In the warehouse recordings you can hear him chanting 'M R James be born / Yog Sothoth rape me lord' (More Lovecraft references) , while the studio recording has Smith singing the actual lyrics to the song , giving a very strange effect. The story is told in 6 parts about a possession & an exorcism. Part 1 is the spectre vs the rector , part 2 is the inspector visiting the rector , part 3 is the spectre possessing the rector, part 4 is the inspector vs the possessed rector , in part 5 the hero appears & is possessed a thousand times and in the final part the hero is possessed but it is ineffectual. Throughout the song you get the same monotonous grungy riff repeating itself over & over , when the music switches to a studio recording towards the end it gives the song a new lease of life before finally coming to an end. The song is part performance art , part No-wave, part garage rock and if you are in the mood for it, it makes fascinating listening.If you are not , it's unlistenable crap.

Rowshe Rumble- This is a drum heavy anthem of a song. The songs title is from MES's days working as a shipping clerk in Manchester docks when he made an error and ordered too many drugs from the Rowshe chemical company and his attempt to hide the error by hiding them all around the building that he worked in hoping not the get rumbled.


Verdict: This really is a strange album , because manages to be a step backwards and a step forwards at the same time.Musically it`s nowhere near as good as Witch Trials , but what this album does have in bucketloads is atmophere and progression. The subject matter & the way it is presented really is chilling. This album for me is all about Mark E Smith's lyrics.Now that he is in full control of the band he can really begin to express himself lyrically and he doesn`t disappoint. This is an album full of horror stories.You can see things beginning to develop that would serve the Fall well in later albums , it's just at the moment they're at a very embryonic stage.
I have always seen this album with a kind of parallel with The Velvet Underground's White Light White Heat album with Witch Trials being their 'Velvet Underground & Nico' in that both bands made classic debut albums but the follow up albums were much rougher sounding & more representive of their styles.
A really interesting album , but to be honest you have to be a Fall fan to appreciate it.
6/10

Im very much enjoying this thread of yours Urban. Can't wait for your opinion on Grotesque (After the Gramme).:)

I've listened to that album something like 6 times in the past 2 days & i'm still not bored of it.

Is it? Great news. Ever since I heard "Free Range" on the 50,000 Fall Fans comp Ive wanted to hear that album.:)

According to Amazon they're due out May 7th , but I can't find any tracklistings so i've no idea what the extras are like.

Here is a link to a blog with 13 Fall albums available to upload...

PunchDrunk

Original Album Tracklisting : Intro / Fiery Jack / Rowche Rumble / Muzorewi's Daughter / In My Area / Choc-Stock / Spectre vs. Rector / Cary Grant's Wedding / That Man (Studio Outtake) / New Puritan (Home Demo) / No Xmas For John Quays

Re-issue Extras :Container Drivers / Jawbone And The Air Rifle / New Puritan / New Face In Hell (John Peel Session 24th September 1980)

Band Line Up: Mark E. Smith - vocals / Marc Riley - guitar / Craig Scanlon - Guitar / Steve Hanley - bass / Paul Hanley - drums

Critique: Totale's Turns is a live album , and the bands first for Rough Trade. It was put out mainly for two reasons. The first being that the band desperatly needed funds , secondly because Mark E Smith was becoming extremly happy with the bands dynamic & wanted to capture it in a release and a live album was a cheap & easy way the achieve this. Also as not to rip off fans Smith instructed Rough Trade to retail the album at half the price ,which they did.
The live material on the album was recorded in working mens clubs in the north of England mostly to an indifferent crowd to whom Smith isn't shy about letting his feelings towards know. In fact during the intro Smith addresses the crowd with 'The difference between you and us is we have brains'.
The sound quality isn't great but it's listenable and once you get over that there are some energetic run throughs of some of their best material off the Dragnet album. The album also includes Cary Grants Wedding a pretty decent song that never made it any further than being played live .That Man is an interesting song that sounds like The Fall doing rockabilly , I don't think they've done anything like this before & I really like it. There is also a home demo version of New Puritan which Smith recorded as a drunk tried to break into his house.The final song on the album is an 8 minute rendition of No Xmas For John Quays the only song from the Witch Trials era. This really is a great addition to the album because Smith is in a foul mood and starts launching into his own band with statements like 'C'mon get a bit of f*cking guts in it' and 'Will you f*cking get it together and stop showing off'.
The sole extras on this album come from the bands third John Peel session from later on that year.I'll cover the Peel Sessions later in detail but this particular session in my opinion is the best one they ever recorded out of the 24 they did and it's inclusion on here is a masterstroke.

Songs You Need

Cary Grants Wedding : Because you can't find it anywhere else & it stands up to the rest of their material from this era.

That Man:What The Fall would have sounded like if Mark E Smith had put them together in 1958

No Xmas For John Quays: Because it's faster , heavier & longer then the album version and hearing Smith shouting at his own band is funny.

Verdict: I was scared of this album for a long long time. Not being much of a fan of the Dragnet album and hearing of it's reputation for being really lo-fi I wasn't really in a rush to hear it. So when I did finally hear it I was pleasently surprised to find myself listening to the whole album and enjoying it. Most of this is down to Mark E Smiths onstage banter and the urgency & togetherness of the band , being a stark contrast to the looseness of the band that recorded the Dragnet album. You can really see why Smith wanted to document this era of the band. Obviously this is not the best album to start with if you want to get into The Fall but those who are familiar with this era of the band will have a soft spot for it.
4/10

Original Album Tracklisting : Pay Your Rates / English Scheme / New Face In Hell / C n C -s Mitherings / The Container Drivers / Impression of J Temperance / In The Park / WMC Blob 59/ Gramme Friday / The NWRA

Re-issue Extras :How I Wrote 'Elastic Man' / City Hobgoblins (7" Single July 1980)
Totally Wired / Putta Block (7" Single September 1980)
Mark E Smith Self Interveiw

Band Line Up: Mark E. Smith - vocals, tapes , guitar , kazoo / Marc Riley - guitar,keyboards / Craig Scanlon - Guitar / Steve Hanley - bass / Paul Hanley - drums / Kay Carroll - Additional Vocals

Critique: Grotesque (After The Gramme) sees The Fall enter their best period. Between 1980 & 1982 The Fall would consistantly record their best material. They would go on to make great albums after that but it remains the era that is my personal favourite. Helped by a stable line up (OK stable for The Fall anyway), growing confidence musically & Smith writing some of his best lyrics.
This album is a product of it's enviroment. In fact during this period Smith was writing material that would show up as late as 3 or 4 years down the line on albums such as Hex Enduction Hour & Wild & Wonderful World Of The Fall.
With Dragnet Smith wrote horror stories about the occult and the supernatural , with this album the horror stories are about living in early 80s Thacherite Britain. The theme of being working class dominates this album cropping up in songs such as Pay Your Rates , Container Drivers , The NWRA and especially on English Scheme were Smith berates those people pretending to be middle class (especially bands) with lyrics such as The commune crap, camp bop, middle-class, flip-flop
Guess that's why they end up in bands and Peter Cook's jokes, bad dope, check shirts, lousy groups Point their fingers at America Down pokey quaint streets in Cambridge.
'C n C - S Mithering' Sees Smith having another rant at the music industry and then halfway though he just goes off on a general rant about anything ,
The things that drain you off and drive you off the hinge.
Boils, dirty socks, the ceilings collapse.
The sunday morning loud lawn mower,
The upstairs jewish girl damn hoovering every thirty minutes,
Sometimes these rants are made in the third person with Smith inventing characters such as J Temperence and J Totale and his son R Totale speaking in the third person.
Smiths lyrics also cover govenment paranoia (New Face In Hell), Sex (In The Park), Drugs (Gramme Friday). The final song on the album is the 9 minute epic The NWRA , being short for The North Will Rise Again and describes a coup in the north of England and how they`ll take control ....and then f*ck the whole thing up because the place is full of drunks & criminals.
Also on the album is WMC Blob 59 , which can either be an abbrieviation of Working Mens Club or Womens Menstrual Cycle depending on which you prefer. It's basically just a couple of minutes of studio noise with Smith ranting in the background.On press releases with the album Smith days 'It's a really funny track , it's a pity you can't hear whats going on.
There are extras on the album in the form of not one but the two best singles ever recorded by The Fall. How I Wrote 'Elastic Man' is Smiths experience of being a media darling (Although not Gary Bushell , but Smith has a pop at him on C n C -s Mitherings) and also Totally Wired ,Smiths ode to his drug of choice ... Speed. The extras are completed by a self interview recorded by an out of it Smith . His first target being The Vapors (The band who recorded Turning Japanese) when he found out that one of the band members used to be a lawyer.

Songs You Need

All of them except WMC Blob 59

Verdict: This album has been called the gateway to the best of The Fall.Which is a good thing really because this was the first Fall album I ever bought so I guess there is some truth in that. I love everything about this album. I love the raw garage rock of Pay Your Rates I love the jaunty bounciness of English Scheme , New Face In Hell is my favourite Fall track """"""OF ALL TIME EVER""""""" and not just because of the quality kazoo playing in it. I love the acoustic blueiness of C n C -s Mitherings , I love Mark E Smith's love of trucker music (Bet you didn't know that) shining through in Container Drivers. And then just when you think things could not possibly get any better you get their 2 best singles ever to top it off as well. Ending this is really hard because I could talk about just how good this album is all day. BUT it still only gets 9.5 out of 10.
The reason? well because they recorded something even better so I have to give Hex Enduction Hour a higher score.
Actually forget that , this album is sheer genius and deserves every mark , even for WMC Blob59.
10/10

at Punk Torrents (Powered by Invision Power Board) you can get the full 33 album discography, I highly reccommend this site. You have to sign up but they have great stuff

No other score would suffice.:)

What happened to this thread Urban?

I've got so many new Fall albums I've not had chance to go back & listen to the old ones yet.


I now own 47 Fall albums :o:

U gotz a zine??

I think i'll resurrect this in the next couple of days seeing as everybody's making list threads.

My review of the Slates E.P. coming soon

:D

Sod it i'll do it now .....


Original Album Tracklisting Middle Mass / An Older Lover etc / Prole Art Threat / Fit and Working Again / Slates, Slags, etc / Leave the Capitol

Re-issue Extras* Middle Mass / Lie Dream Of a Casino Soul / Hip Priest / C'n'C - Hassle Schmuck (John Peel Session - 31st March 1981)
Lie Dream Of a Casino Soul / Fantastic Life (7" Single December 1981)
Medical Acceptance Gate (Demo 1981)

*Slates has been re-issued twice.Once in 1998 co-released with A Part Of America Therein, a live mini album released only in the U.S. And again in 2004 with the bands 4th Peel session and the extras listed above. I own the 1998 version so i'm going by that one.

Band Line Up: Mark E. Smith - Vocals , Piano , Harmonica / Marc Riley - Guitar , Electric Piano / Craig Scanlon - Guitar , Piano / Steve Hanley Bass, Acoustic guitar / Paul Hanley - Drums, Percussion / Kay Carroll - Kazoo / Dave Tucker - Clarinet

Critique Originally released as a 10 inch single , this E.P. never made the charts due to having too many songs to be classed as a single ( 6 instead of the maximum allowed 4 ) & too cheap to be classed as an album (The E.P. retailed at £2 , according to BPI rules at the time an album could cost no less than £2.49). Nonetheless this is 24 minutes of The Fall in top form.
The opening track Middle Mass is a rant about the growing power of the middle classes , or a personal rant by M.E.S. about Marc Riley. When Riley approached Smith about this Smith started fumbling uncomfortably and then simply replied that the song was 'about another guy called Marc'. But the writing between this partnership was on the wall.
The only downside of the E.P. comes with the next song 'An Older Lover etc' , although it's not a bad song it never really goes anywhere & the lyrics about tiring older lovers are not up to Smith's usual standards.
Prole Art Threat is 2 minutes of jaunty garage rock which started off life as a story about working class culture and it's threat to the liberal media, commuter trains & MI5 , Not being able to get it right Smith condensed the song to it's bare bones and this stripped down rough version is the result.
Fit And Working Again is another bouncy Fall pop song thats one of my favourites , hell you can almost sing a long to this one. But the real highlight of the E.P. is the next song Slags , Slates etc. This is another song where Smith just rants at anything that just happening to be bothering him at the time , such as Ripoff bands with creaky pants and scrubbed hands and Academic male slags , Ream off names of books and bands.
It was this song that led Rough Trade record boss Geoff Travis to complain to Smith about the use of the word 'Slags'. Smith told him to 'Just sell the record you fucking hippy' and after this album was released The Fall were looking for another record label. Explaining the hostility from his own record label to the press Smith said 'The tea boy hates the fact that you slagged of Wah! , and the lady who does the cooking takes offense to the word slags'
The E.P. closes with 'Leave The Capital' a song about vampires in Victorian London, but in reality a thinly veiled attack on Smith's hatred for the city.
The extras on this E.P. include the bands 4th session for John Peel as well as the single Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul which was the song that introduced the twin drummers line up with both Paul Hanley & the returning Karl Burns on drums. The song itself was mistaken by some as an attack on the Northern Soul scene , which it wasn't. Smith explained that the song was about the closure of the Wigan Casino and his admiration for the all nighters. He also explained that a large number of Northern Soul fans made up The Fall's audience at the time because they were 'offbeat' , he also explained that Dexy's Midnight Runners were 'busting a gut to get that kind of audience , and failing'
I would tell you about the other 2 songs , but I don't have that copy of the E.P. :o:


Songs You Need

It's only an E.P , just get the lot of them

Verdict: As all my time as a fan of The Fall , I have never EVER seen a Fall fan say a single bad word about this E.P, and I hate to sound like a broken record but the E.P. is an absolute belter recorded when the band were on top form. I mean it comes slap bang in the middle between Grotesque & Hex Enduction Hour , easily the bands 2 best albums. The only duffer on this E.P. is 'Older Lover' but even then it's more because the record is of such high quality rather than the song itself being awful , it's just an average song surrounded by greatness.
I'm not even going to hesitate giving this.....
10/10

Bumped for Jackhammer's benefit, (And because i'm updating it again tomorrow)

I'm taking a look through it now.

Well I only just noticed this thread now, but thanks for making it anyway. I've listened to random songs from the Fall but I didn't know where to start. I'll get Slates EP.

Slightly off topic, but I've been thinking of maybe doing a top 20 or 50 albums list myself. While I'm sure I know enough about music to do a balanced top 100, I feel that I probably don't have enough time and I'd be kicking myself when I later discovered more great albums. Maybe I'll give it a year or so, then do it.

I'm listening to their debut right now. Recorded in one day? Un-fecking-believable!

It was supposed to be 5 days but half the band got flu & MES lost his voice.

They played a gig in the evening too.

Original Album Tracklisting: The Classical / Jawbone and the Air-Rifle/ Hip Priest / Fortress - Deer Park / Mere Pseud Mag. Ed. / Winter I (Hostel-Maxi) / Winter 2 / Just Step S'ways / Who Makes the Nazis? / Iceland / And This Day

Re-issue Extras: Deer Park / Who Makes the Nazis? (John Peel Session September 15th 1981) / I'm into C.B. (B-side on the single Look, Know released 19 April 1982) /Session Musician (live at the Boerkeller, Leeds, November 5, 1981) / Jazzed Up Punk shit (live at the 666 Club, Manchester, May 15, 1982) / I'm into C.B. (Stars on 45 Version) (live at fagins, Manchester, September 30, 1981) /And This Day (soundcheck at Main Street, Auckland, New Zealand, August 20, 1982) / Deer Park (Live at Main Street, Auckland, August 20, 1982) / And This Day (Revisited) (live at Astoria 2, London, February 26, 1997)

Band Line Up:: Mark E. Smith – vocals, tapes, guitar / Craig Scanlon – guitar, vocal, piano / Marc Riley – electronic organ, guitar, electric piano, banjo / Steve Hanley – bass guitar, vocal / Paul Hanley – drums, guitar / Karl Burns – drums, vocal, tapes / Kay Carroll – vocals, percussion

Critique: This is it, the tour de force of The Fall if you're a diehard Fall purist.And, if Smith was to be believed at the time the Fall's last ever album. Some might argue that 'This Nations Saving Grace' would also be in with a shout , but that album features Brix Smith heavily. And nobody polarizes opinion amongst Fall fans as much as she does. Back to this album , it was recorded in, of all places a disused cinema in Iceland , armed with two drummers to accommodate returning original member Karl Burns , and yet another record label in Kamera Records.
The album opens up with controversial 'The Classical'. Controversial because of it's 'Where are the obligatory ******s?' line. Amazingly enough in 1984 Motown Records showed interest in signing the band and asked Smith to send them an album. Smith , only having a copy of this album sent it. Later he received a letter back from Motown saying 'I see no commercial potential in this band whatsoever' Smith assumed it was this lyric that put them off. If I love 'The Classical' for one reason it's that it's finally an opening song of an album to do the band justice. It's just balls out right from the beginning, and it just doesn't stop.
Jawbone & The Air-Rifle is another balls out rock song about an old war veteran who goes around shooting things because he feels unfulfilled. Next up is possibly the Fall's most classic song 'Hip Priest' as used in Silence Of The Lambs. This slow brooding atmospheric little number in some ways is a follow up to Spectre vs Rector on 'Dragnet but Hip Priest is much more easy on the ears.Over the years this song has become Mark E Smith's national anthem, when he sings over & over 'he is not appreciated' you know he's talking about himself , and even if he isn't the song has come to represent that.
Fortress/Deer Park is my favourite off the album. I just love it's thumping bassline & skewed synths washing over the top of it with MES ranting about life in the UK over the top of it. In the hands of a lesser band this would probably be considered filler material after 3 stonking opening tracks, but it's just as good & holds your interest as well as the other songs that precede it.
Mere Psued Mag Ed is the traditional MES rant this time about the media , this is probably the weakest song on the album. This version sounds totally ramshackled & all over the place. I much prefer the version the band recorded for a Peel Session 20 or so years later aided with a crunching riff & 20 more years of bitterness in MES's voice. It's not the song thats at fault here , it's the performance & recording of it.
Winter / Winter 2 is up next. It's actually one song but was split so that on the original vinyl album it would close side one & open side two. Another slow brooding number which contains some of my favourite MES observations about mad kids , alcoholics & anti smoking, anti nuclear feminists. The album fades a bit during the second half but still manages to keep up the pace with Just Step S'ways & Who Makes the Nazis? (Balding smug ***gots , Intellectual half-wits , Winos & 29 year olds apparently make the nazi's). The last two songs Iceland & And This Day highlight the bands influences such as Can & Captain Beefheart , Iceland full of Can like basslines & minimalist drumming with the guitars & Smith's vocals being kept low in the mix , And This Day is the polar opposite, a 10 minute Beefheart-like workout with the band's duel drummers being used to the maximum with Smith shrieking over the top of them.
The album extra's while nice to have don't really add anything to the album , if anything you can see why some of the B sides ended up B sides and the live material is , as usual ranging from ok to poor quality. Nothing essential was left off.

Songs You Need: Just get the whole thing & immerse yourself in one hour of juicy Fall goodness.

Verdict: Amazingly when I first heard this album I was totally indifferent to it , but then all of a sudden one day it just clicked. It's a great help if you come into this album at least aware of what the Fall are about and to know of Mark E Smith's little idiosyncrasies to get the maximum from it. The thing that makes this album a cut above the others is that it takes the atmosphere of 'Dragnet' and combines it with the growing maturity lyrically & musically of 'Grotesque'. Smith files shots at all his usual lyrical targets but this time there is the musical muscle to back it up. It's still raw & privative as ever but the band sound much tighter complete with both drummers. There is a reason why this is considered one of the best post punk albums ever made , listen to it & you'll discover just why that is. Every time I listen to this album I find it hard to listen to anything else afterwards because compared to this most bands just sound redundant amateurs.
10/10

Original Album Tracklisting: Joker Hysterical Face / Marquis Cha-Cha / Hard Life in Country / Room to Live / Detective Instinct / Solicitor in Studio / Papal Visit

Re-issue Extras: Joker Hysterical Face (live in Bury April 1982) / Medley: Town Called Crappy-Solicitor In Studio (live in London March 1982) / Hard Life In Country (live in Wellington, New Zealand, August 1982) / Detective Instinct (live in Manchester December 1982) / Room To Live (live in Rotterdam February 1983) / Words Of Expectation (live in Toronto April 1983)

Band Line Up: : Mark E. Smith - Vocals / Karl Burns - Guitar , Bass , Drums / Marc Riley - Guitar / Craig Scanlon - Guitar / Steve Hanley - Bass / Paul Hanley - Drums / Arthur Kadmon - Guitar / Adrian Niman - Sax

Critique: A short six months after the release of Hex Enduction Hour The Fall entered the studio to record a new single. Or at least that was the plan before Mark E Smith decided he'd rather record an album instead. The only problem was he decided to wait until the last minute to inform the rest of the band. Because of the hurried nature of the recording and the lack of preperation this album was basically thrown together as quickly as possible with nobody seeming having a clue as to what was going on. It was also around this time that tension was growing between Smith & Marc Riley which culmilated in the two of them having a huge fistfight in the middle of an Australian nightclub. Riley was still in the band at the time this album was recorded but was hardly used , the majority of this album was recorded by Smith with Karl Burns , in most cases on the songs on here the full band were never used and because of the chaotic nature of the recording nobody seems to have a clue as to who played on what songs. One person who was used was new guitarist Arthur Kadmon. Kadmon played for all of 23 seconds on 'Hard Life In The Country' before being fired , thus becoming the shortest serving official member of The Fall. A few months after the recording of this album Smith informed Riley that the band would be going on a European tour without him , he also told him that if it didn't work out Riley could re-join the band.
Needless to say after the tour he wasn't invited back.Riley played his last gig with the Fall at the Manchester Free Trade Hall on December 22nd. Many people thought at the time they'd fall apart without him.

Songs You Need:

Room To Live - A nice upbeat rockabilly style number , it would have been nice if the horns had been a bit higher in the mix though

Solicitor in Studio - Probably the highlight of the album you could probably stick this on the end of Hex Enduction Hour & not notice the join , a nice catchy bassline with a solid riff to compliment it.

Verdict: Listening to this again now it's not as bad as I remember it to be , but it has to be said this is a pretty woeful effort. It's not that the songs are bad , they just sound like demo versions. Solicitor in Studio is about the only song here that sounds anywhere near finished. It's a shame because stuff like Joker Hysterical Face , Marquis Cha-Cha and Room To Live could have been great. Of the other songs Hard Life in Country is just painful to listen to , I can't say i'm at all surprised Smith fired Kadmon if this rubbish is anything to go by. Detective Instinct is your typical Fall repetition song where the bass will just go on & on while Smith talks over the top of it. The song isn't terrrible just average really. Papal Visit is just a load of background studio noise with Smith talking over it supposedly about the pope's first visit to the UK in 1982. My first thought was to trash this album but it does have it's moments. But what I would say is if you ever decide to collect all of The Fall's official studio albums get this one last.
2/10

During 1982 & 1983 several live albums by the Fall were released on various labels around the world , here is a brief overview.

Album Tracklisting: Middle Mass-Crap Rap / English Scheme / New Face In Hell / That Man / An Older Lover etc. / Slates, Slags etc. / Prole Art Threat / Container Drivers / Jawbone And The Air-Rifle / In The Park / Leave The Capitol / Spectre Vs Rector / Pay Your Rates / Impression Of J Temperance

Review:
Live In London 1980 was released a limited edition of 4000 copies by the Chaos Tapes label who would issue live recordings of punk bands in cassette format. It's been re-released several times since under the name 'The Legendary Chaos Tape : Live In London 1980'. All the other bands put out by the label were either 2nd gen punk bands or Oi bands , so why they were releasing stuff by The Fall is anyones guess. Also because the material from the Slates EP was unreleased at the the time the gig was recorded the label had no idea what the songs were called so they just put question marks on the tracklisting.
The gig itself was recorded at the Aklam Hall in London on 11th December 1980 , they also recorded the gig there the following night but didn't use it. Which bemused Mark E Smith because he felt they played better the second night. The set is mostly made up of Grotesque and Slates material with only Spectre Vs Rector dating earlier. It's worth getting the album just for Spectre Vs Rector as it's far superior to the studio version. The sound quality while not being great is listenable & no worse than Totals Turn. If you can tolerate that then this is a good energetic & lively set of the Fall in this era
4/10


Album Tracklisting: The NWRA / Hip Priest / Totally Wired / Lie Dream of a Casino Soul / Cash 'n' Carry / An Older Lover / Deer Park / Winter

Review:
Recorded on the last night of their first American tour in Detroit in 1981 'A Part Of America Therein' was released by Cottage Records to help promote the bands second American tour in 1982. It was during the 1981 tour that drummer Paul Hanley was refused entry to the country by US immigration for being too young to play at the +21 clubs the band were due to play at , so Karl Burns returned to step in which resulted in the band having two drummers for the Hex Enduction Hour recordings. During this tour the UK was gripped by a number of race riots in Brixton , Toxteth & Handsworth , so when the band came on stage they were dubbed as being '... from the riot torn streets of Manchester England'. After such bravado in the introduction the band would start up The NWRA with a kazoo almost sounding like a novelty cabaret act. This is probably the best Fall live album there is Mark E Smith is on form , the sound quality is good and the crowd were into the music. Smith himself said he was surprised at how positive the American audience was to The Fall , especially after spending years playing to indifferent audiences in the UK for so long. Album highlights for me are the storming versions of Deer Park & Winter from the then unreleased Hex Enduction Hour. Unlike most live albums this isn't a greatest hits live package , The Fall don't do greatest hits gigs if you go to a Fall gig you'll hear stuff off the last album , stuff off the current album and stuff of the next album , maybe a cover or an old favourite if you are lucky. What The Fall do is snapshots of an era and this is a snapshot of this line up of the band at their peak.
6.5/10


Original Album Tracklisting: Impression Of J. Temperance / The Man Whose Head Expanded / Room To Live / Hip Priest / Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul / Prole Art Threat / Hard Life In Country / The Classical / Mere Pseud Mag Ed /Marquis Cha-Cha / Backdrop / Fantastic Life / English Scheme / Joker Hysterical Face / No Xmas For John Quays / Solicitor In Studio

Re-issue Extras: The Container Drivers / C'n'C Black Night / Look, Know / Who Makes The Nazis? / Gramme Friday / Slates, Slags etc

Review:
By some miracle The Fall found themselves with a top 20 hit in New Zealand with Totally Wired. Deciding to pounce while the iron was still hot a group of promoters fresh from having some success organising a tour of Australia & New Zealand for The Birthday Party approached Mark E Smith about The Fall doing the same thing. Smith , desperate to get out of the UK for a while agreed and shortly after The Fall were off to tour that part of the world for the first time. This was the infamous tour of the nightclub brawl between Smith & Riley. The final gig of the tour at Mainstreet Cabaret in Auckland,on 21st August 1982 was recorded & released by Flying Nun records as an album that came with a 12 inch single for the New Zealand market. The album quickly became a popular import in the UK until Mark E Smith saw it. Apparently not happy seeing a picture of a recently fired smiling Marc Riley in an airport on the cover and also at not being paid Smith ordered that unless he received a substantial amount of money he would block all imports of the album. Flying Nun didn't have the funds to pay for this so the album became a sought after rarity until Smith re-issued it on his own Cog Sinister label 15 years later.
I have to say i'm not really a fan of this album the songs just sound flat & the audience don't really seem that into it. To be honest the bonus material recorded from other gigs on the tour sound a lot better. the sound quality is worse but there's much more atmosphere. This one really is for completists only. The Deep Purple pastiche is quite funny though.
1/10

I have been listening to Hex Enduction Hour for the first time and I prefer it a lot more than their debut!

I don't think I could choose between them , My favourite usually depends on my mood.

To be fair I only listened to their debut once, but Hex has appealed a lot more. I will go back to their debut from time to time though.

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)

Perverted by Language rules..

BUT

I can't believe you didn't put "Garden" as one of the essential songs. That's in my top 5 Fall songs. That and "Eat Yrself Fitter" are my fav on this album, but just looking thru the tracklist and remembering...there's lots of fantastic songs on it.

I always enjoyed Perverted by Language, especially the song The Man Whose Head Expanded and Wings, in fact i'll go listen to the cd now. Excellent review! I'm excited to hear your review of Bend Sinister

I was listening to Bend Sinister a few days ago, I never really paid that much attention to it before. It wasn't until I heard it again I realised just how many songs there are on it that I do like.

I did nearly put it in it's always been one of those borderline songs to me. Sometimes I like it , other times it just irritates me.

me too!

If anyone is in any doubt of the enormity of my task in hand................

Singles (46)

Bingo Masters Break Out EP
It's The New Thing
Rowche Rumble
Fiery Jack
How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'
Totally Wired
Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul
Look , Know
The Man Who's Head Expanded
Kicker Conspiracy / Wings (Double A Side)
Marquis Cha Cha
Oh! Brother
C.R.E.E.P
Call For Escape Route EP
Couldn't Get Ahead / Rollin Dany (Double A Side)
Cruisers Creek
Living Too Late
Mr Pharmacist
Hey! Luciani
Ghost In My House
Peel Sessions EP
Hit The North
Victoria
Bremen Nacht Run Out
Jerusalem/New Big Prinz
Cab It Up
Telephone Thing
Popcorn Double Feature
White Lightning / The Dredger EP
High Tension Line
Free Range
Ed's Babe
Why Are People Grudgeful
Behind The Counter
15 Ways
The Chiselers
Masquerade
Touch Sensitive
F-'Oldin' Money
Rude (All The Time)
The Fall vs 2003
(We Wish You) A Protein Christmas
Theme From Sparta FC #2
Rude All The Time EP
I Can Hear The Grass Grow
Reformation (The Single)

Studio Albums (26)

Live At The Witch Trials
Dragnet
Grotesque (After The Gramme)
Slates
Hex Enduction Hour
Room To Live
Perverted By Language
The Wonderful & Frightening World Of The Fall
This Nations Saving Grace
Bend Sinister
The Frenz Experiment
I Am Kurious Oranj
Extricate
Shift Work
Code Selfish
The Infotainment Scan
Middle Class Revolt
Cerebral Caustic
The Light User Syndrome
Levitate
The Unutterable
Are You The Missing Winner
The Marshall Suite
The Real New Fall Album (Formerly Country On The Click)
Fall Heads Roll
Reformation Post TLC

Live Albums (33)

Totale's Turn
Live In London 1980
A Part Of America Therein 1981
Fall In A Hole
Seminal Live
BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert
The Twenty Seven Points
In The City
15 Ways To Leave Your Man Live
Live To Air In Melbourne 1982
Live Various Years
Nottingham 1992
Live 1977
I Am As Pure As Oranj
Live In Cambridge 1988
Austurbaejarbio Reykjavik, Iceland 1983
Liverpool 78
Live In Zagreb 1990
2G+2
Touch Sensitive... Bootleg Box Set
The Idiot Joy Show
Live At The Phoenix Festival 95/96
Interim
Live At Deeply Vale
Live From The Vaults - Oldham 1978
Live From The Vaults - Retford 1979
Live From The Vaults - Los Angeles 1979
Live From The Vaults - Glasgow 1981
Live From The Vaults - Alter Banhof, Hof 1981
Live At The Knitting Factory - New York 2004
Live At The Garage - London 2002
Live At The Knitting Factory - L.A. 2001
Live At The ATP Festival 2002

Compilation Albums (39)

Early Years 77-79
Hip Priest And Kamerads
Nord-West Gas
Palace Of Swords Reversed
Box One
Box Two
458489 A Sides
458489 B Sides
The Collection
Sinister Waltz
Fiend With A Violin
Oswald Defence Lawyer
The Other Side Of...
Archive Series
The Less You Look, The More You Find
Oxymoron
Cheetham Hill
Smile... It's The Best Of
Northern Attitude
The Peel Sessions
A Past Gone Mad
Psykick Dance Hall
Backdrop
A World Bewitched
Totally Wired - The Rough Trade Anthology
The Rough Trade Singles Box Set
High Tension Line
Listening In
Early Singles
It's The New Thing! The Step Forward Years
Time Enough At Last
Words Of Expectation - BBC Sessions
The Rough Trade Singles Collection
The War Against Intelligence
Rebellious Jukebox
50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong
The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004
Permanent Years (Paranoia Man...)
The Fall Box Set 1976-2007

Mark E Smith Solo Albums (2)

The Post Nearly Man
Pander! Panda! Panzer!

And 24 Peel Sessions

:o:

jesus christ man. Kudos for trying to take it on at all.

If I stick to official stuff that should knock it down to about 35/40 albums.

I think I owned about 52 of those albums last time I counted