00002 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong
 

Molecules and myself have painstakingly worked our way throughout the minefield that is the body of work by the popular beat combo The Fall so that you don't have to.

We have come up with what we believe the be the ultimate starter kit to anyone unfamiliar with the band. Molecules has been handling the bands works dating from 1978-1989. I have been dealing with the bands output from 1990 up to the present day.

Some of the more obvious tracks are absent. In fact you will not find anything from the bands most critically acclaimed album 'This Nations Saving Grace' nor will you find the bands most well known songs such as 'Totally Wired' or 'Hip Priest' or 'Hit The North' & 'Ghost In My House' either. But the songs that are there are what we consider the bands best works. Narrowing the choices down to 18(ish) was both challenging & ultimately rewarding as we indulged ourselves into one of the finest bands ever to come out of this country.

Molecules 1978-1989 compilation can be found here : http://www.musicbanter.com/635471-post8.html
and my 1990-2008 compilation can be found here : http://www.musicbanter.com/636153-post17.html

I can imagine this would be difficult. For the record, popular as it may be, Hip Priest is still my favourite Fall song so I'm appalled by its lack of inclusion!

But yeah, I can't wait to see these lists.

Uh... http://www.musicbanter.com/rock-meta...ers-guide.html

Doesn't mean anything

This is our version of this thread

http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...on-thread.html

The Fall are one of those bands I've always wanted to check out but never knew where to start. So it will be nice having you two doing all the hard work for me. :D

If Service and Shut Up aren't on this comp, heads shall roll :D

Seriously, it'll be cool to see what you've both come up with :)

Will this be a continuing series of comps then? I miss the lespaul/jackhammer comp thread.

Here's part one of the only guide that matters to the only band that matters.
It's chronological. DOWNLOAD IT, JERKS!



Intro
A perfect Mark E. Smith intro if ever there was one. Confident and dismissive of all.

1. Psycho Mafia
The first track from the Fall's debut EP in 1978, 'Bingo Master's Break-out!'. For the first year of their existence they were still a democratic unit and provided an acerbic slant on the punk wave.
Spitting on the streets
Shot heads and teeth
Our eyes are red
Our brains are dead

2. Repetition
The Fall's manifesto in song form.
Same old blank generation
Groovy blank generation
Swinging blank generation

3. Rowche Rumble (Live)
This is 'top 5 pieces of music ever' business, honestly. Relentless and unpolished. The song is an attack on La Roche Pharmaceuticals, a Swiss company which thrives to this day on mental 'illnesses' defined only by a checklist of physical symptoms and written by imperfect humans in the late 70's.

4. Psykick Dancehall
A young Smith lays out his sonic ambitions on the opener from the supernaturally-charged 'Dragnet'. His literary influences were properly starting to influence the lyrics by this point (Burroughs, Lovecraft and Wyndham Lewis to name a few).

5. Your Heart Out
For all their cult status and anti-pop reputation, the Fall's sound is quintessentially accessible, and MES is clever enough to know that pop can be subversive and artistic in the right hands. This also marked the beginning of their lo-fi era, which arguably left the biggest mark on future generations of annoying bands.

6. English Scheme
Just sheer poetry. Brings grim middle-England to life and has a good poke at the middling-classes :laughing:
The commune crap, camp bop, middle-class, flip-flop
Guess that's why they end up in bands

7. How I Wrote Elastic Man
A classic Fall single in the character of a disillusioned hit songwriter (/author?). It's songs like this where Smith was in his element displaying a command of the language I could only dream of. I love the discordant, apparently abstract lyrics he wrote as well, but this is what all pop songs would aspire to in an ideal world. *sigh*

Life should be full of strangeness
Like a rich painting
But it gets worse day by day
I'm a potential DJ

8. Fortress/Deer Park
From the album 'look back bores' like us are always droning on about. Production-wise I am still yet to hear anything as brutal as 'Hex-Enduction Hour'. Bristling with malevolence. Also marks the beginning of the devastating two-drummer line-up. Listen out for the debut of the dictaphone Mark was rather fond of holding up to the mic.

9. Smile
This epitomises what many consider to be the definitive Fall line-up. Like a dream coming-together of Beefheart and Can's never-ending consciousness jams with amphetamines instead of psychotropics... But this is MES, and the surreal is merely the all-too-real, the internal monologue screaming at you from the back of your mind... Unless it isn't. In which case why are you still here?

10. Ludd Gang
I was split between this and 'Neighbourhood of Infinity'; but when I was 17 this was one of the first Fall songs that grabbed me by the throat and made me realise I would probably be listening to them on my death bed. Probably helped by the few MES lyrics I could actually make out at the time (pre-internet), which now seems exceptionally stupid of me.

Ports, Jap, fella, missed, film, swiz, quartz, lorry, back, tread, damn,
ludd gang /
Carve a hole in the rain for yer
Carve a hole in the rain for yer /
I hate the guts of Shakin' Stevens
For what he has done
The massacre of "Blue Christmas"
On him I'd like to land one on

11. Wings
Has the same relevance as the above track; a rather haunting, shamelessly repetitive cyclical post-punk riff that is soberly psychedelic (i.e. in an eyes-wide-open, speed comedown-nightmare kinda way). MES was a devotee of Philip K. Dick and this is pure 70's short-story science fiction, coming off like some kind of cautionary fable on time-travel; although I am convinced there is a subtext at work.

This promo is typically po-faced and grounded (music videos were not par for the course back then and you could tell they weren't keen to look like prats), I especially love the few unexpected angles and violent frames at the end. Mark's drinking partner at the pub is American ex-wife and ex-guitarist Brix Smith, who now owns a London boutique and has appeared on Gok Wan's thrifty fashion fluff hour.



12. No Bulbs
Can you imagine how any other band nowadays purporting to be 'indie' would handle the subject matter of living in a demolished flat and trying to find a belt in the dark? Not like this
They say damp records the past
if that's so I've got the biggest library yet
the biggest library yet.

13. R.O.D. (John Peel BBC Session)
Classic from yet another Fall album that could be said to be different from all the rest whilst still being unmistakably them.

14. Gut Of The Quantifier (John Peel BBC Session)
Who are the riff-makers.
Who are they really?
How old are the stars really?
Half-wit philanthropist, cosy charity gig
If God could see this
He'd stick it
They stick it in the gut
Cheap fog
Rotting scout-belt

To NK Roachment: Yarbles (Interlude)
Serves as a good breaker, also one of many great little moments tucked away on easily the Fall's most ambitious album - 'This Nation's Saving Grace'. To be honest it probably was.

15. Hey! Luciani
1988 was the year Mark E. Smith and his erstwhile gruppe tasted chart success, I was stuck for a song to epitomise this and Urban helped me out. It has harpsichord (!) and was a single release to coincide with Smith's play of the same name.

16. New Big Prinz
A sequel to Hex's 'Hip Priest' and, along with 'Touch Sensitive', I would argue it is the closest you will get to a Fall anthem. We appreciate you Mark, you old git!

17. Wrong Place, Right Time
At their tightest here, it's worth noting that this album was written as the soundtrack for the ballet 'I am Curious, Orange'.

18. Frenz
The outro of the misanthrope

link?!

edit: posted like 10s too late

I hope the live version of "Rowche Rumble" is in this... the keyboards in the album version kinda make it hard to get into.

EDIT: HA!!! I knew it!

Seeing as I only own This Nation's Saving Grace and enjoy it to bits I'll be grabbing that link. FANK OO.

No problem, just enjoy it. And then download part two :D

Me too. :thumb:

Got my fave track on there (Deer Park), win.

of course what do you think I am a... not Fall fan?

very good choice for a favourite, I included it on the assumption that even people who don't have Hex will have heard 'the Classical', and it captures the approach of that album perfectly, takes no prisoners!
This was fun to compile so I hope people get something out of it, I was saying to Urban earlier there are a thousand variations of the track listing that would have worked just as well (or better, there's a alot of scope for division amongst Fall fans), but unfortunately it had to be narrowed down to one!

Just listened to the first comp last night. Definitely something that's going to require repeat listens to fully digest. I liked it though, especially the tracks toward the end.

Apologies getting this up late. I have been stuck at my nephews birthday party all day, but now I have finally got this finished.
I decided to go with a much more conventional track listing for my compilation than Molecules did for his because I believe that The Fall's post 1990 work doesn't get anywhere near as much attention as their 70s & 80s albums do even though quite a few of these albums such as Extricate , The Infotainment Scan and others are just as good as any of the more well known albums that came earlier.
Without further ado I give you............


I'm Frank
Craig Scalon's frank tribute to Frank Zappa, hence the title 'I'm Frank' But MES explains this at the end of the song anyway.
Like some of Zappa's stuff It could also be seen as a parody of generic stadium rock with Smith filling the song with dumb sexual lyrics like Gimme gimme gimme it slowly baby , Shh ,Ahh , Unh Unh Anh Anh.
It is a very catchy song though and it does contain some nice flute work.

Telephone Thing
The basis of this song comes from an old Lisa Stansfield song called 'My Telephone' where she collaberated with DJing duo Coldcut. Smith hated the song itself but loved the bassline so he recruited Coldcut to work on the song & wrote a totally different song around the existing bassline. It also features some nice 70s style Waca-Waca guitars from a returning Martin Bramah playing on his first Fall album since the bands 1978 debut 'Live At The Witch Trials'.

Idiot Joy Showland
MES has always written songs showing his utter contempt at the music industry and this song is probably the most vicious of them with the whole Madchester scene happening at the time. A scene that he made no secret of his contempt for. The song begins with the diatribe 'Idiot groups with no shape or form ,Out of their heads on a quid of blow , The shapeless kecks flapping on the storm , Look at what they are: a pack of worms' it then continues Hey you imitators, come on up , Hey little singer, come on up Show us your house and Show us your cock The working class has been shafted So what the fuck you sneering at?

Free Range
One of the most popular songs of the bands output in the early 90s. The song was written about the growing tensions he felt when the band played in Zagreb shortly before the outbreak of the war there. There are also lots of references in the song to 2001 which originally comes from Friedrich Nietzsche's novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra and the music that novel inspired by Richard Strauss (The theme music to 2001 A Space Odyssey if you didn't already know).

Why Are People Grudgeful?
The Fall do reggae ... sort of.
This is a sort of cover version but it's based on two songs rather than one. You Crummy by Lee Scratch Perry and People Funny Boy by Joe Gibbs. I can't comment on the originals because i've never heard them but as far as this song goes this is pure dance pop with a reggae flavour and one of the bands best ever singles.

Strychnine (Peel Session)
A straight up cover of the classic song by The Sonics that rocks like a bastard. What more can I say?

Glam Racket - Star (Peel Session)
This to me sounds like an attack on hangers on & music industry insiders. A lot of people wrongly think this is an attack of Britpop due to the mention of Suede , but he's referring to the fabric , not the band. I've gone with the Peel Session version of this song because it includes an added monologue by a recently returned Brix Smith in the middle of the song.

Hey! Student
One of the bands earliest songs which began life as Hey! Fascist finally gets recorded for the Middle Class Revolt album in 1994. And he take the piss out of Pearl Jam fans in it as well ......... BONUS.

Feeling Numb
The only saving grace on the otherwise bloody awful Cerebral Caustic album. Has some nice vocal harmonies from Brix.

He Pep
The Light User Syndrome doesn't seem to attract as much hatred as the Cerebral Caustic album amongst most fans of the band but to me it's only marginally better than that album. And surprise surprise my favourite song off this album is another song slagging off the music industry. Lyrical highlights of this one go as follows.. 'I believe there's a new drug out , It's called speed , I wrote a song about it , Conceptually a la Bowie. But it's been lost in the vaults of the record company, By our manager. So instead our new 45 is 'Girlies'

Masquerade
The Levitate album divides opinion like no other Fall album. Primarily because the band decided to ditch the rock music and make an electronica album (3 years before Kid A , Suck on that Radiohead fanboys). This song , the second track of the album is probably the best of the bunch. It was a toss up between this & the album opener 'Ten Houses Of Eve' but this song has slightly more structure and is the best example of The Fall doing a 'bangin' dance tune.

Touch Sensitive
This is the most obvious track on this compilation and probably The Fall's most heard song due to it appearing on television on a regular basis. But there was no way I couldn't include this song because I love it so much. The song itself with it's simple riff & loud drumming sounds like a return to the bands early days reminiscent of songs like Rowche Rumble but with the added bonus of a string section over it giving the song a much bigger & bolder sound.

This Perfect Day (Peel Session)
Another cover , this time by Australian punk legends The Saints. I went for the Peel version because it's just so goddamn loud , abrasive & raw and so much better than the version that appeared on The Marshall Suite album. This is how garage rock is SUPPOSED to sound.

Two Librans
The main riff from this song sort of rips off Pink Floyds 'Intersteller Overdrive' somewhat and adds a bone crunching bass line to it that dominates the song. After the bands self destruction in 1998 and a few hit & miss albums with unstable line ups this is the first signs that Smith was starting to get things back together.

Theme From Sparta F.C.
With his new wife in the band (Her greek ancestry inspired this song) and the bands best line up since the mid 80s. The band put out the cracking 'The Real New Fall LP' in 2003. This was the lead single from the album as became the sound of the BBC's football results. Molecules pointed out to me that I should have used 'Sparta 2' instead of this version , as used on American pressings of the album. It's a bit less polished than this version & has different backing vocals and in retrospect he was probably right too...Dammit.
But it's still a great song.

Mere Pseud Mag. Ed. (Peel Session)
I begged Molecules not to use the version of the song included on 1982's Hex Enduction Hour album on his compilation. The band re-recorded it for John Peel in 2003 and this version is far far superior to the original. The original version seemed a bit too patchy & ramshackle to my ears and i've never liked it. On this version the riff is much more solid and the song just flows so much better.
If only they could have given the whole of the under-developed 'Room to Live' album this treatment as well.

Blindness (Peel Session)
I love the version thats on the Fall Heads Roll album. But to me the Peel version of the song just has that extra crunch in the bass that this song really benefits from. This song was used in a U.S. ad campaign for Mitsubishi so it may be familiar to some people when they hear it again.

Reformation
The title track from 2007's Reformation Post TLC album. Picked pretty much for the same reasons I chose Blindness. Crunching bassline , driving riff and proof that after 26 albums The Fall have lost nothing and can still be more uncompromising & relevant than most bands could ever dream of being

Taurig
A nice little instrumental outro from the bands last album to be released , 2008's Imperial Wax Solvent.

^^^

Tidy. I'm on that like a rat down a drainpipe.

Think I'll listen to this now and read the write-up!
I drew the short straw on covering the Fall's 'celebrated' era, but these days if I am listening to them it is to Extricate onwards - so much diversity and many a gem to be found. There must be something wrong with me because I always find something like about every album, it's uncharacteristically optimistic.

Don't forget to link to this page in the first post!

Done

This is so genius it needs reposting here

i see that classic and raise you. Was taken off youtube for ages but it's back now, yay


It was filmed at the Hacienda for those who didn't know

'RID US OF SPACE BORES'

the 'kicker conspiracy' one is great as well, Beggar's Banquet were quite a big label apparently so I guess they forced them into doing promos. Among the montage of archive newspaper footy articles it has the famous shot of the England team doing a Nazi salute at the 1938 match against Germany :D

I'm listening to the 2nd comp now and i really shouldn't neglect late Fall as much as i do (to be fair i only have like 5 albums in the first place but whatever). This is some funky shizz! All of this could very well lead to me becoming an obsessive Fall fan..

Ill. I'm downloading Molecules' mix right now. I've been meaning to get into more Fall (I have Enduction, Saving Grace, and 50,000 Fall Fans), but the discography is so overwhelming I never know what to get, especially with their later output.

If I had to rank all 27 Fall studio albums in order of preference it would look something like this...

Hex Enduction Hour
Grotesque (After The Gramme)
Perverted by Language
The Infotainment Scan
Dragnet
The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall
Bend Sinister
Slates
Fall Heads Roll
This Nation's Saving Grace
Live at the Witch Trials
Extricate
The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country on the Click)
Reformation Post TLC
I Am Kurious Oranj
Imperial Wax Solvent
Levitate
Room to Live
Shift-Work
The Frenz Experiment
Middle Class Revolt
The Unutterable
Code:Selfish
The Light User Syndrome
The Marshall Suite
Are You the Missing Winner
Cerebral Caustic

Excellent. Lists like these are so helpful when a band has a discography of more than 4 albums, nevermind the Fall's 20,000,000 albums. Since I do prefer the early 80's/late 70's output I figured Grotesque and Perverted would be good, I've come close to buying those several times but another album always gets in the way.

Well Perverted by Language in itself is a decent album but not a great one.

But they were making some great singles around that time and once those were added to the re-issue of the album they really made it a special one. Without those it would probably be a bit lower than 3rd. Maybe 8th or 9th.

Bump.


The Fall is one band that I've never given myself a good chance to get into. Both comps are on the DL now. Hopefully a (good) report will follow soon! Thanks for all the hard work on the comps y'all.

Thank you very,very much.

Really getting very heavily into The Fall thanks to these lists.I'm eternally grateful.