Trollheart spends time with... The Fall!

[Trollheart]

Title: Perverted by Language
Medium: Album
Year: 1982
General opinion: Seems the critics were sharpening their knives for this one. Indie media darlings one year, whipping-boys the next huh? Christgau moaned about "side-openers that go on so long you don't really notice your attention flagging as their momentum gives way to, well, poetry readings – roughly accompanied, as usual" while the NME believed it to be a case of the band "plodding on, going nowhere, making do". Sounds agreed, concluding it was "overall laborious and very dull indeed" though that respected music magazine Sma Shits sorry Smash Hits dithered on the fence, saying it was "the record for all times and places".
Trollheart Falls in: Good almost military style drum beat and snarky guitar, with Smith's laconic vocal clear and up in the mix and we're off with "Eat Y'self Fitter", pretty repetitive though with atypical breaks where the title is chorused by the rest of the band in a short of group shout. Are those flutes? Surely not. Let's check. No I don't see any. This is the first album to feature Smith's wife, Brix (Brix?) on guitar, though according to the Big W, most of the album was recorded already before she joined.

I don't know what yer man is going on about when he talks of side openers that go on so long... this is six minutes and some, hardly a fucking side-filler. They've written much longer. It's not great, but in the tradition of The Fall as I'm coming to understand it, it's a bit of fun. "Neighbourhood of Infinity" has a harder snarling guitar edge to it, faster and a good deal more serious it would seem, the vocals now somewhat drowned out by the guitar riffs. "Garden" is the longest track, nearly nine minutes, slower with a kind of tribal style of drumming and almost an Indian feel to the music. Smith's thick northern accent makes the word sound like "get down". He might also be shouting "shotgun!"

Actually I see now it's not the longest, just beaten out by the penultimate track by a few seconds. "Hotel Bloedel" has a slightly Police-esque feel to the guitar, and is it strange indeed to hear a female vocal as Brix takes lead and Mark backs her up. She can sing - whereas he really can't, and I think he would probably not have a problem admitting that - so it's a very different sound. I would not, in fairness, say she's a great singer, kind of very sub-par Debbie Harry or something, but it's still interesting to hear actual singing. Mark then almost seems to do a kind of rap alongside her vocals.

There's a kind of stripped-down darkwave idea to "Smile", with Mark back on solo vocals and utilising that shriek again, or a lesser version of it, bass and guitar holding the line while the drummers seem to go mad behind them. The next track reminds me of The Alarm or Echo and the Bunnymen, or some damn thing. "I Feel Voxish" rides along a catchy guitar line and that pulsing bass, with Mark (have to call him by his first name now, to distinguish him from the old ball and chain) getting close to actual singing, and backing vocals in there too. Also some really fine organ work, which takes the song to another level. Pretty damned good now I have to say.

The longest track then, edging out "Garden" by nine seconds, is "Tempo House", grinding along nicely with heavy percussion and the bass right up front leading the melody, some keyboard runs colouring the edges from time to time, and we end on "Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot" (I don't know if this is an amalgamation of two tracks or just one with two titles; SGR I'm sure will be able to advise me) which snaps the guitar in your face from the off, a vaguely country style to it, much slower and laid back, Mark again sort of hovering between his usual talking and a form of singing. I don't know if he's changing his style here, or if he will go back to the original form on the next album, but it's intriguing to hear.

Some more shrieking and choppy guitar brings the song to a close, and I have to say I don't see where all this hate is coming from (says the guy who hate(s)(d) The Fall!) because I really don't see this as any sort of a dip in quality, or going through the motions. If anything, the addition of Brix Smith changes the band and, in my extremely uninformed and limited view anyway, gives it a shot in the arm that maybe it needed. I don't have a problem with any of this, and I wonder if it was a case merely of the music press wanting to turn and savage the ones they had championed, for whatever reason, possibly because they had ceased to be underground and had gained national popularity? After all, so my friends at Wiki say, this got to number one. In the Independent Charts of course, but that's still stepping about as close to the mainstream as a band like The Fall can.

Rating: 6/10

Trollheart vs The Fall
Trollheart: 0
The Fall: 8
Current score: Trollheart 0 -8 The Fall

[SGR]

PBL is probably my second favorite Fall record - and Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot is probably my second favorite Fall track. Technically, it's two songs that are paired together on the album - they weren't always paired together live, for example. The separation between the two tracks becomes obvious on repeat listens, with the melancholy chord change about 4 minutes in..."it takes grace to play the second fiddle well..."

My absolute favorite version of the track comes from one of The Fall's many sessions with John Peel:

Various thoughts: I used to get high listening to this record. I'd always start the process from the beginning of the album - so while Eat Y'Self Fitter marched along, I was packing a bowl and by the time Neighbourhood Of Infinity started menacing my speaker, the bowl was kicked and I was feeling great.

Smile is, in my opinion, probably The Fall's best use of the dual-drummer attack. And it was the first song The Fall ever played on national TV, after John Peel curried favor to get them on The Tube in 1983. An important piece of Fall history for sure, and quite funny to see an audience who largely doesn't know what to make of the band or their music.

Hotel Bloedel was of course significant for being the first Fall track with someone other than MES on lead vocals (but would be far from the last). MES and Steve Hanley actually had to goad/encourage Brix to get her to sing the track in the studio - and she rehearsed it a few times - and little did she know, one of those rehearsal takes would end up being the one included on the record. As to the meaning/context of the song, Brix wrote this in her autobiography ('The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise'), describing an experience with a strange hotel near the former concentration camp of Dachau:

We were on our way to a gig in Holzkirchen when our van broke down outside of Dachau. When we saw the signs for Dachau, I felt my pulse rise with foreboding. Just being so near a concentration camp made me feel sick and desperately sad. I couldn't believe our van had broken down there. I began to fret, realising we had to spend the night and find a Gasthaus. We were on our own without the tour manager. We had been due to rendezvous with him in Holzkirchen. The Gasthaus we stumbled upon was called Hotel Blöedel, after the family's name who owned it.

Tempo House represents the formula that serves The Fall best throughout their lifespan - repetition and simplicity, with MES providing the flavor of his colorful and humorous lyrics:

Put your claim into Tempo House
Put your claim, put your claim
I'd sing "Solitaire" for the B.E.F.
But who wants to be with them, anyway?
Snow on Easter Sunday
Jesus Christ in reverse
I tell ya, the Dutch are weeping
In four languages at least

The very humorous call-and-response chorus from Eat Y'Self Fitter is something I have fond memories of imitating and joking about with my college roommate and friend back in college. We'd be on our way back to our dorm, heading up the building steps when I'd interject: "Up the stairs, mister!", to which he'd dutifully respond: "Eat y'self fitter!" We'd of course do it a couple times on our way to our room. The people in our building probably thought we had some kind of mental troubles.

Once again, the Fall had a few singles/b-sides at the time that were excellent, but never made it onto a studio album.

As well as one on soccer/football hooliganism, etc.

While this is the first appearance of Brix Smith on a Fall record, and this album does get attention for that, she only appears on two tracks - you made mention of her influence/effect, but you won't see that in full force until you enter the wonderful and frightening world of their next record. I have no clue why contemporary critics panned the record as the Fall being caught treading water, it doesn't make much sense to me (though I'm happy it's gotten its dues retrospectively) - it's very much a transitional record for them, as this was also the first record without longtime guitarist Marc Riley (who Brix would properly replace). I view this record as Hex Enduction Hour's looser, sparser brother - and I also like it even more. It's the only Fall record I've ever had framed and hanging on my wall, despite it not being my favorite Fall record. That said, I recognize its flaws too - I do think Fitter is a strange track to open the record with - Hotel Bloedel is a little bit uninteresting/slapdash (in terms of sound) compared to the rest, and - one last gripe, though you wouldn't really know it, there's no proper studio recording of Tempo House - the one featured on the record is a live recording from a show at the Hacienda.

Warning for the next record: I don't know if you're sticking strictly to the tracklist of the original LPs or not - but if not, the cassette version included 6 or 7 additional songs (mostly from the Call For Escape Route EP) that make the record even more enjoyable - the very short original LP (only 9 tracks) pales in comparison and doesn't present the full breadth of the band or their vision at the time in my opinion - I'm also perhaps biased because the same tracklist used for the cassette was used for the first CD release of the album, and that's what I grew up with. Anyways, just know that if you're looking at a playlist/tracklist with 9 tracks, that's the very first original LP, while if you're looking at a playlist/tracklist with 16 tracks, that's the version of the record that's been released over and over since the 1988 CD edition.

[Trollheart]

Title: (Escape Route from) The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall
Medium: Cassette tape
Year: 1984
General opinion: Looks like the music press were back on the band's side. NME said "They have their own world, which still has wonder and fright in it, and every time they play, the doors to it swing open." Sounds opined that  "The preferred line of attack remains insidious subversion, Mr. Smith's nasal nastiness doing its worst over that deceptively straightforward backing", and also suggested - surely with tongue wedged firmly in cheek, that it would be "the ideal Christmas gift". Trouser Press went further, believing it to be  "easily one of the band's best records" and Pitchfork characterised the songs as "bouncy and insane ... Sex Pistols- meets- Plastic Bertrand new-waviness" to "refreshing pop rock"
Trollheart Falls in: I think it's correct to say this appears to have been the first Fall album to enter the actual charts, not the independent ones, where they had already made their mark, even topping that chart. But though it performed poorly, at least it gave them a toehold in what is, after all, the only chart that really matters. Apparently, the original album labelled one side "Frightening" and one "Wonderful", so it is to the first I go to begin, or rather, continue, my journey through this wild landscape of shouted and sneered lyrics and often inescapably catchy tuneage. And we kick off with "Lay of the Land", with a dark, doomy guitar before what I recognise as the chant of the hippies from the old movie Quatermass/i] comes through in a spooky reminder of how scary I found that film to be, then it breaks out into an energetic rock tune, with our man coming close to singing. It's a fun song, and followed by "2x4" with another boppy guitar riff running it, MES getting into that shrieking thing he does that tends to annoy me so much, I think though I can hear Brix in there too? "Copped it" runs on a busy guitar line with MES just talking for some of the vocal, seeming to go sotto voce for other parts of it (or is that someone else?), very uptempo beat to this. Thought that was Brix on backing vocals but it says it's Gavin Friday, so what do I know?

"Elves." That's what I know. Now we're in my wheelhouse. Fantasy, giants, wizards, all that shit, I'm all over that. Somehow though I doubt this will be a song about little men living under toadstools or in forests, or if they are they'll be cracking bowls (or whatever the phrase is) or fucking punk nymphs or something. It's a pretty heavy song as it goes, pounding guitar hammering the melody at you, and whatever it's about I doubt it's anything you'd read to your kids at bedtime. If you have kids.

My favourite bass player is back for "Oh! Brother!" as the percussion drives the beat along in a sort of cheerful way, sounds like they may be using the kazoos again maybe, MES coming possibly the closest I've heard to him singing, and a very catchy guitar riff too, while "Draygo's Guilt" has himself back talking the lyric, a kind of mix of upfront guitar and muddied proto-metal in it. Doesn't seem to be that much to this one. "God Box" has talking and feedback before it seems to leap almost into the middle of the song, where MES channels his inner Johnny Rotten to an extent, a pretty brooding, dour song it appears to me.

Much better is "Clear Off!" which has an almost pop sensibility about it, a pulsing bass and sort of swinging beat, a song you could conceivably hear on the radio or even on the dancefloor, not something you can say about most of their songs. MES is again doing his best to sing; this would be my favourite on the album, and it closes the so-called "Frightening" side of the record, so on I progress to the "Wonderful" side and it opens on "C.R.E.E.P", which again is very commercial and poppy, a decent effort by MES to sing here too, with female backing vox presumably provided by the old lady. "Pat-Trip Dispenser" may have banjo on it, and is a slower, more Fallesque song if you will, with some sort of unnerving guitar while "Slang King" has a more rocky guitar line and bounces along nicely with some pretty sweet keyboard runs too, nice to hear it.

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure but I think they've thrown in the main riff from "Satisfaction" here. Cheeky, if so. A nice walking bass line drives "Bug Day", with I think more keys? Not sure. Very dub, it says here. I wouldn't know. But I feel it has a certain slow reggae rhythm (is there any other kind of reggae rhythm?) running through it. Of course, as usual I have problems with MES's accent and instead it sounds like he's singing "Fuck day". Maybe he is. "Stephen Song" sounds like some sort of thing you might sing around the campfire - if you were fans of The Fall. Very fast guitar riff but not an aggressive one, and "Craigness" is pure country really, ambling along with a stalk of straw in its mouth and, possibly, a bloodstained axe slung over its shoulder, whistling a tuneless tune. No, I do not need help.

Apparently based on a real-life accident which is pretty horrifying to read about, "Disney's Dream Debased" is deceptively upbeat, with what sounds like brass and MES actually singing against a clanging ringing guitar riff, sort of like a northern Bowie or something. Maybe. The album ends then on the almost eight-minute "No Bulbs", where they sound kind of like The Clash mixed with Sham 69. I know, I need to lie down after that. Can someone evict this guy drilling holes inside my head please?

I can see why this got into the main charts, because it's certainly the most commercial The Fall have been up to now, and some of these songs would not be out of place on a show like Top of the Pops. I would have to take issue with the title of the album though: wonderful? Yeah, probably. Frightening? Not a bit of it. Take more that that to frighten me! Oh my god! What was that? That! Over there in the corner!

Rating: 7/10

Trollheart vs The Fall
Trollheart: 0
The Fall: 9
Current score: Trollheart 0 - 9 The Fall

[Trollheart]

Title: This Nation's Saving Grace
Medium: Album
Year: 1985
General opinion: Hah! Even The Guardian liked it! Said they were  "operating just on the edge of the mainstream and at the peak of their accessibility and yet strangeness". The usual suspects agreed. NME said it was "one of their most accessible LPs yet" which was yet "infinitely more peculiar than almost anything else released this year". Sounds waxed lyrical about it: "Oh, to be thirteen again and have this be the first record one heard" although Cashbox didn't like it, saying "This is post wave rock 'n' roll for the depressed teenager."
Trollheart Falls in: Another sort of distorted guitar intro as the short (and presumably instrumental; their first?) "Mansion" opens proceedings, and I think this is the first song Brix writes on her own? Really more an instrumental introduction to the album, then MES starts talking about his "Bombast" as the guitars get much more rocky and upfront, and he's back shrieking with the best of them. It's okay, but nothing much to write home about, personally is my opinion. Better is "Barmy", with a great guitar riff and MES trying again to sing and to be fair not doing too bad a job of it. The track is a little long though, for what it is.

There's a great strolling guitar line to "What You Need", a throaty bass that has to be heard to be believed, and Smith back to calling out his lyrics. Very catchy melody, and you can certainly see how The Fall were evolving, progressing from almost disjointed backing for shouted street-corner poetry (manic street preachers, indeed) to recognisable music and even - dare I say it? - commercial songs. It's followed by "Spoilt Victorian Child", which rattles guitar riffs all over the place and has MES calling out the lyric at quite a pace. Decent guitar solo and it even has a sort of middle-eighth in it. "L.A." sounds like someone shaking up a box of cornflakes or something, then a bouncing guitar riff takes it with actual singing, which may be Brix, and a kind of echoing vocal. Weird but very good.

Rolling percussion and a sort of double spoken vocal bring in "Gut of the Quantifier", then the guitar gets going properly, the song stomping along arrogantly, while "My New House" is one of only two to be written by MES solo (and, oddly, is exactly the same length as the song before it) and bops along at a fine pace on a breezy guitar. Again, there's not much in it, just him bragging about his new house, but sure, that's MES I guess. "Paint Work" has a catchy melody, but the vocal is really low and almost accidental, as if he's just talking to someone in the background. Think I hear an organ in there too. Totally abrupt ending though.

MES breaks out the violin, believe it or not, for "I am Damo Suzuki", which has a very heavy, ominous, oppressive feel to it, a slow, kind of creeping guitar allied to faster, popping percussion and it speeds up near the end, getting quite rushed and frenetic, building, one would assume, to a climax. One would be wrong. It just faded out. And then we have a reprise of the opening guitar instrumental, a sort of bookending of the album, though this one has lyrics, and the odd title "To NK Roachment: Yarbles." Right.

Certainly some more commercial music here, but retaining The Fall's unique approach to songwriting and still, well, still really weird in places. But I guess good weird.

Rating: 7/10

Trollheart vs The Fall
Trollheart: 0
The Fall: 10
Current score: Trollheart 0 - 10 The Fall (I may as well just give up now, huh?)

[Trollheart]

Title: Bend Sinister
Medium: Album
Year: 1986
General opinion: Oh dear. We're back Fall-ing short (sorry) of the music reviewers' praise. Trouser Press said it was "a rather gloomy, dark-sounding record", NME called it a "distinctly down affair" and Al Spicer in his Rough Guide to Rock pronounced it "not a great album by Fall standards". Apparently, even the man himself was not too happy with the album. Where does that leave me, I wonder? Well, let me just once more climb up on this ledge and lose my balance as
Trollheart Falls in: Sounds like the beginning of Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" as well as Nick Cave's "Lovely Creature" as "R.O.D." begins, then it kicks up on what's a more upbeat sound than I would have expected, given the above comments. But then, perhaps they're referring to the lyrical content, which generally more or less passes me by, so maybe it won't be so bad for me. Or maybe it will. A decent start with some good guitar, then it's a bit more of a sparse backing for "Dktr. Faustus", with backing vocals from Brix as MES rants in the background, the same guitar riff pretty much over and over again, but it suits the song. Oh right, now it's changed. That's cool.

Kind of an almost hippy idea about this, probably the chant by Brix, the "yeah-eah-eah", and the guitar and possibly keys (not sure) get pretty moody and ominous, then "Shoulder Pads #1" literally whistles along on I assume keyboards, very breezy and catchy, with MES doing a sort of half version of singing, "Mr. Pharmacist" is more in your face, very aggressive in comparison with a sort of punk guitar riff driving it and a sense of desperation in the lyric, and "Gross Chapel - British Grenadiers" is a bit too muddy for my tastes but does drive along very powerfully in a dark kind of way. Goes on a bit too long though.

"Living Too Late" kicks off with a fine strolling rock riff, with what sounds like keyboard backing, MES trying to sing rather than talk, and doing a half-decent job of it. I like the way it ambles along and doesn't outstay its welcome, like the previous track. "US 80s-90s" opens with punching percussion and then snarls in on a sharp guitar riff, a very sneered vocal here I believe, while the next one just pops in for a quick pint, a minute and a half and it's gone, which sets us up for two longer ones.

"Bournemouth Runner" comes in on a slow, dead bass line that Geezer Butler would be hard pressed to imitate, seriously doomy. Man. I guess this is where the album is seen to get dark, but then it changes entirely, kicking into a high-tempo guitar riff with what sounds like harmonica and rocks like a good thing. Hmm. It seems I've been tricked into getting the playlist for the cassette version, which has 2 more tracks than the album/CD version, so I'll keep going with it. There is, however, a live version of a previous track on it at the end which I'll ignore, as I've heard it before. This one could be my favourite on the album so far. Not really seeing this "cold, dark, down" idea that all these so-called reviewers are saying is the theme of the album, not at all.

"Riddler!" has a very hollow and slightly ominous guitar riff opening it, measured drumming and I think a kind of moaning synth possibly? Whistling brings back "Shoulder Pads #2", seems to be a reprise, then "Auto-Tech Pilot" features a bass line that speeds up as the song goes along, then slowly comes back down in speed and ends on an interesting little piano run.

Again, I don't agree with the critics. There's nothing dark or down or sad about this album. It's just a continuation of their evolution from post-punk underground band to almost mainstream post-punk pop band. Nothing wrong with that, and I find most of this to be pretty upbeat. It has its moments of melancholy, sure, but as I say, unless the depressive element lies in the lyrics, I'm stumped. I enjoyed this a lot.

Rating: 7.8/10

Trollheart vs The Fall
Trollheart: 0
The Fall: 11
Current score: Trollheart 0 - 11 The Fall

[SGR]

Happy to see that Bend Sinister seems to be your most liked record so far Trolls! It's actually my favorite Fall record. And "Gross Chapel - British Grenadiers" is actually my all-time favorite Fall track. Once again, the Peel session of the track is immaculate.

I guess I agree with critics more than you do in the sense that I believe it's the most dour, brooding, and ominous Fall album - I don't view it as depressing exactly, but it's certainly not a happy or jubilant record. There's actually a really well known story among Fall fans that the producer (John Leckie) actually accidentally mastered the album a tick or two slower than was intended, which resulted in a bit of this feeling - that was the reason for MES's displeasure with it.

I have very distinct memories of walking around my college campus at night, specifically around the time I was going to co-host my radio show with my roommate around 11pm on chilly cold dark Friday evenings (until 1am), listening to this record, and smoking cheap cigarettes as the campus lamp-posts guided my way to the building. I'd sneak booze into the campus building to get slightly plastered while we hosted the show. And then the cigarettes on the way back to my dorm after, also listening to this record, hit like...well, it hit like a brick.

And goddamn, does the cassette track-list make it perfect - I can't even imagine this album NOT ending with "Auto Tech Pilot" - if I grew up with the original LP (without that track), I don't think this would clear the edge as my favorite Fall record, but since I did, here we are. And goddamn, you can count me as surprised a few years ago when I heard the fucking sample of this track in experimental hip-hop group Injury Reserve's track "SS San Francisco" - I think even the Trollheart himself could appreciate how simply and directly this sample was lifted. 

[Trollheart]

Meh, I maintain that it's not in any way a dour or sad record. Even that ultra-doomy bass on "Bournemouth Runner" goes uptempo and the song takes off. I don't get it. I read that MES had some issue about production, wanting it to be like the cassette he was listening to on his Walkman. Actually I think the production is okay, better than most Fall albums.

Listen to the words coming out of my mouth which I never expected to utter! You'd think I was an expert on the band! Well, never, but I'm getting to know them better, and they're not at all what I thought they were/remembered them as.

Question on the Peel Sessions: are these just new versions of old songs, or different tracks altogether? I already have something like 30 albums to do (about a third of the way through I think) and that doesn't include EPs, so I'd rather just do EPs, if at all, that are completely new material.

Thanks for your comments, and glad you're enjoying it. I'm not sure whether I'll finish it, with Christmas coming up, especially if I head out to my sister's, but I'll do it up to Christmas Eve anyway, which means another thirteen albums at least. I just don't want to go outside the month limit, so one way or another I'll be done with The Fall by December 31 at the latest. I'm also doing a few other projects, so the chances of getting to review more than one album a day are slim. But at least I have a basic grounding in their music now, of sorts anyway.

[SGR]

Meh, I maintain that it's not in any way a dour or sad record. Even that ultra-doomy bass on "Bournemouth Runner" goes uptempo and the song takes off. I don't get it. I read that MES had some issue about production, wanting it to be like the cassette he was listening to on his Walkman. Actually I think the production is okay, better than most Fall albums.

Listen to the words coming out of my mouth which I never expected to utter! You'd think I was an expert on the band! Well, never, but I'm getting to know them better, and they're not at all what I thought they were/remembered them as.

Question on the Peel Sessions: are these just new versions of old songs, or different tracks altogether? I already have something like 30 albums to do (about a third of the way through I think) and that doesn't include EPs, so I'd rather just do EPs, if at all, that are completely new material.

Thanks for your comments, and glad you're enjoying it. I'm not sure whether I'll finish it, with Christmas coming up, especially if I head out to my sister's, but I'll do it up to Christmas Eve anyway, which means another thirteen albums at least. I just don't want to go outside the month limit, so one way or another I'll be done with The Fall by December 31 at the latest. I'm also doing a few other projects, so the chances of getting to review more than one album a day are slim. But at least I have a basic grounding in their music now, of sorts anyway.

Oh yeah, I love the production as it is - this was John Leckie's last album as producer for The Fall (he did this one and the prior two, and it would appear he had just about had it with good ol' MES).

But in terms of perceptions of it being a more somber affair for The Fall, it obviously comes down to subjective interpretation I suppose. Part of the work may be getting done by the ghostly black and white album cover with the somewhat ominous title (which is actually a reference to a Vladimir Nabokov novel of the same name).

Some of the lyrical themes are also rather gloomy.

Surrealist horror:

It's approaching
600 pounds gas and flesh
Robes in tatters
It's approaching
Lips and tongue abhorrent

Military funerals:

Then let us fill a bumper,
And drink a health to those
Who carry caps and pouches,
And wear the louped clothes.
May they and their commanders
Live happy in their scaly years

Whene'er we are commanded
To storm the palisades
Our leaders march with fusees,
And we with hand grenades
We throw them from glacis,
About the enemies' ears
Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row,
Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row,
Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row,
For the British Grenadiers

Facing our own mortality:

Sometimes life is like a new bar
Plastic seats, beer below par
Food with no taste, music grates
I'm living too late
Once talking was my favourite while
But now I know a conversation's end
Before it's done
Maybe I'm living too long
The daylight
I see trouble on the streets
Fearing catastrophe to meet
Walk down the devil's boulevard
But still my heart is hard

And of course, the invocation of Faustian bargains.

Somewhat humorous aside, there's been a long-standing rumour that Miles Davis heard "Auto-Tech Pilot" and that after hearing it, he wanted to work with The Fall. This strange rumour has persisted throughout the years, even though its origin is in a humor/comedy column run by NME in 1986. Given Miles Davis exploratory nature, and his undying love for certain unorthodox (for a jazz man) music like the Beastie Boys second album (Paul's Boutique), which he claimed he never got sick of listening to, it didn't feel like it would be that hard to believe it was true.

I had predicted before you started the project that the band would actually grow on you and you'd appreciate them, and I'm happy to see that being the case. It wouldn't be much fun for anyone if doing this was the equivalent of torture for you.

John Peel, famous british radio jockey, would often bring artists he liked in to record sessions of their songs for John to play on his radio show - they often exhibited a rawer side of the artist without the additional studio trickery - The Fall being his favorite band came in to record 24 different sessions up until the point Peel passed away in 2004. I like to include them in some of my responses not as a way to nudge you to listen to them or anything, but as enrichment and reference points for anyone who might browse this thread in the future.

Thanks again for doing this project Trolls, I've very much enjoyed reading your thoughts on it, and hope that you can at least get through their 90s albums - their sound takes a pretty diverse and interesting turn in that era with the use of electronics/keyboards, and it's the era of the band I usually find myself returning to the most these days.

[Trollheart]

Title: The Frenz Experiment
Medium: Album
Year: 1988
General opinion: Pitchfork didn't like it, calling it  "a bit of a mixed bag. On no other record than the weak 1994 effort Middle Class Revolt do they sound more like they're on autopilot.". That's all I got. Hey, if th eForks hate it, it must be good, right?
Trollheart Falls in: Right. From now on, I'm sticking to the "basic" album. I mean, Bend Sinister was good with the extra tracks and all, but time is running out for me as we hurtle uncontrollably and unstoppably towards the birth of Santa, and I want to try to do as many of these as I can in December. Leave it to the ones who can't stay upright too long to release an album on the one day that only occurs once every four years! If they could, I bet they would have released one on April 31st.

A slow, laconic, almost sixties-derived beat with a lazy plodding bass opens what I guess you'd call the title track, "Frenz", with some nice keyboard backing and MES definitely coming closer now to singing than just talking. "Carry Bag Man" opens with the sound, it seems, of a drill or a whistle, and a vocal harmony-style chant before the guitar hammers into the track and it takes better shape. I wouldn't say necessarily the days of talking the lyric are gone, but Smithy seems to be more heading in a semi-singing direction these days.

There's a rolling soft percussion and bass to take us into "Get a Hotel", which then trips along on a pretty infectious guitar rhythm, the drums getting a little frenetic for a few moments before settling down again, and "Victoria" is a cover of a Kinks song. I don't like the Kinks. At all. Interesting though to hear MES actually sing - can't talk this one, son. Ah it's as ordinary as I thought it would be. Sell-out! Sell-out! Or something. Give me original music. Who needs cover versions? Boo. "Athlete Cured" sounds like what the discerning cannibal would have on his dinner table, but it gives MES a chance to go back to talking the lyric again, and has a busy rhythm line running through it. Oh, and a few shrieks, sure why not? But what the hell are they talking about, comparing it to the song by Spinal Tap? Nothing like it. What are they smoking, these guys?

Very thick bass line on "In These Times" and then it takes off as a real rocky bouncy uptempo number with sort of backing vocals from the band; not sure if they're making a point by slagging off someone here, but it sort of sounds like it. Sounds like someone's playing a trumpet, though I doubt anyone is. A strolling, swinging style then to "Steak Place", which to me sounds rather like the Troggs' "Wild Thing", and nobody fucking remarks on that, do they? "Bremen Nacht" sounds like something out of a sixties spy movie or something, lot of stuttering guitar and crashing drums, MES back to talking the lyric, and is another example of The Fall stretching an already thin idea thinner than a starship caught in the gravitational grip of a black hole. I mean, it's just the fucking same all the way through for seven god-damned minutes! Come on Mark for fuck's sake! "Guest Informant" is the polar opposite, a few seconds of percussion and the two Smiths shouting the same line for about forty seconds and we end on "Oswald Defence Lawyer" (clever: Oswald got no defence, no trial - he was killed before he could get to court) which is a slow, plodding track with the band shouting the chorus, such as it is, and some pretty hard guitar cutting through, but I would have to say the last half of this album really dipped badly, and it's the first I'm giving a lower rating to then I have been up to now. Thus far, it's been increasing ratings, but this is going right down. Didn't like this much.

Rating: 4/10

Trollheart vs The Fall
Trollheart: 1
The Fall: 11
Current score: Trollheart 1 - 11 The Fall (finally scored!)

[SGR]

It's funny, I listened to The Frenz Experiment constantly at one point while I was in college. I remember many car rides in which I was driving with my wife, along with my roommate and his girlfriend (we all lived together for a time...in a small dorm room meant for two guys with a bunk bed), and I remember torturing them with "Bremen Nacht". It would go on and on and on. I still love the track (while my wife and the others hated it). Though my wife despises the track, all I need to do is start humming it for her to recognize it - one of the perks of jackhammer-like Fall repetition I suppose.  That being said, I rarely reach for the record these days.

Looking at the original LP tracklist, goddamn - that is definitely the weakest Fall record you've covered thus far. I respect not bothering with the expanded CD editions in the interest of time, but I will say that this record (and the next record) represent The Fall at perhaps their most poppy and glamorous (in both musical aesthetic and appearance). To who's credit? With another woman in the band (Marcia Schofield), I think her and Brix were able to get the boys to stop dressing like they were art school students headed for a night at the pub and start dressing like a proper fuckin' rock band.





In Brix Smith's autobiography, she did make several mentions of how much she enjoyed having another woman in the band, though I can't be bothered to go digging for the quotes.

You mentioned the "Victoria" cover, but it's really the R. Dean Taylor cover of "There's a Ghost In My House" that commands attention on the CD version of the album. They actually recorded a music video for it, and Mark looks about as healthy and put together as he ever did and Brix (in the role of the ghost) looks great too.

And who could forget the joyous krautrock stomp of "Hit The North", accompanied with one of the best Fall music videos for my money:

How Brix managed to convince Mark to dress up like British royalty for the music video of "Victoria", I'll never know either.

Perhaps the greatest crime of The Frenz Experiment is that they decided to include duds like "In These Times" and "Oswald Defence Lawyer" over some excellent tracks like "Twister" which only found their way to the CD version:

And the original LP included a small excerpt of "Guest Informant", while the full version of the track only appeared on the CD version (along with the excerpt, for whatever god-forsaken reason):

It's very unfortunate with this record - as with the original LP, many of the best tracks were left off entirely, whereas with the CD version, you get everything, but there's too much fluff and the record in that form is simply too long. Amongst the bits, there's an excellent record in here, but you'll not find it with any official version of the record.

Brix had her own thoughts on the record from her biography - the only thing I really disagree about is "Get A Hotel", which I love to bits:

"'Carry Bag Man' is fine, and chugs along, but is a phoned-in effort from Mark, a song about how he likes to carry plastic bags.  'Get a Hotel' is just annoying.  'The Steak Place' is boring and conjures images of gross food, the kind of restaurant that might have photos of the food on their menu.  The most annoying song I ever had to play on was 'Oswald Defence Lawyer.'  I think it was the worst song we'd done since I'd joined the band.  It was interminable, and when we played it live I watched the audience switch off.  It makes me cringe today, just thinking about it.  I was expected to really belt it out, but it just sounds irritating and grating: 'Oswald Defense Lawyer embraces the scruffed corpse of Mark Twain.'  It was cool to name-check Twain, though." (238-239)

[Trollheart]

I get what you're saying about potentially choosing the wrong version of the album, but I do have to ask: why so many god-damn versions? Looking for playlist on YT is slightly akin to pointing a loaded revolver at your head, unaware of how many bullets are in the chamber. You just don't know what you'll end up with, and I've been describing a certain track only to realise it's another, different one, and that the track listing on this particular playlist is not what I've been reading off Wiki, not what I think I'm working with. Other bands have extra tracks, sure, but they don't have six different versions of every album! It's very disorienting. Also annoying.

I will say that I noted (but forgot to write down, as I was somewhat drained by the album and honestly just wanted to be done with it) that the cover is the first "real" one they've done, i.e., one you might see in a record shop and not run screaming away from. So if, as you say, the band image changed (I will admit, that girl on the keyboards - oh mamma! I watched a few Fall videos just to see her!) then perhaps their whole music aesthetic did too. I'm both chuffed and annoyed at the same time that my "score" is now no longer zero, as it was going so well, but how will the next few albums fare? Guess I'll find out soon. But yeah, that was the first one I really did not enjoy listening to, never mind reviewing.

[SGR]

I get what you're saying about potentially choosing the wrong version of the album, but I do have to ask: why so many god-damn versions? Looking for playlist on YT is slightly akin to pointing a loaded revolver at your head, unaware of how many bullets are in the chamber. You just don't know what you'll end up with, and I've been describing a certain track only to realise it's another, different one, and that the track listing on this particular playlist is not what I've been reading off Wiki, not what I think I'm working with. Other bands have extra tracks, sure, but they don't have six different versions of every album! It's very disorienting. Also annoying.

I will say that I noted (but forgot to write down, as I was somewhat drained by the album and honestly just wanted to be done with it) that the cover is the first "real" one they've done, i.e., one you might see in a record shop and not run screaming away from. So if, as you say, the band image changed (I will admit, that girl on the keyboards - oh mamma! I watched a few Fall videos just to see her!) then perhaps their whole music aesthetic did too. I'm both chuffed and annoyed at the same time that my "score" is now no longer zero, as it was going so well, but how will the next few albums fare? Guess I'll find out soon. But yeah, that was the first one I really did not enjoy listening to, never mind reviewing.

Yeah I don't know honestly why their mid/late 80s records had so many fuckin' versions, it's honestly annoying. I don't hold it against you, someone who's going in cold and trying to cover as much of their material as you can, to be ultra-aware of this stuff. You could say The Fall have reaped what they've sowed.

You'll be glad to know Marcia hangs around for the next two studio records (Brix only hangs around for one more). Don't worry too much about the score, because if you go through their '90s records, I feel almost inevitably there will be at least one or two that you have serious doubts about. 

[Trollheart]

Title: I Am Kurious Oranj
Medium: Album
Year: 1988
General opinion: NME gushed that the band "retained the power to surprise, to provoke and occasionally outrage that only The Smiths could pretend to possess in the '80s." but Allmuisc weren't so sure, suggesting that "As a cohesive Fall album it fails [...] I Am Kurious Oranj would have been more interesting to see than hear."
Trollheart Falls in: You know, I always have a bit of a problem with albums based on operas. I'm not mad about Waits' Franks Wild Years, and Roger Waters can stick Ca Ira where the sun doesn't shine, and I don't mean the dark side of the moon. This is, apparently, music written for a ballet, not an opera (but same difference, to me anyway) and coming off the back of The Frenz Experiment, for me an experiment that failed, it's probably not too surprising that I'm less than sanguine about the prospect of this album getting me back to where I want to be. Oh, here we fucking go again: this does NOT help. Oranj featured a different track listing across the various formats on which it was originally released. In addition to extra tracks "Guide Me Soft" and "Big New Priest", the UK CD featured several alternative and extended versions of songs (tracks 3, 5, 7, 8 and 12). In 2013, Beggars remastered and reissued the album on CD as a part of the 5 Albums box set; the new edition used the CD mixes sequenced according to the vinyl track order, with extra tracks and alternate vinyl mixes added as bonus tracks. I mean, it's hard enough choosing the right playlist without them banging nineteen different mixes of the fucking thing at me. Are they trying to make me call off this project?

Fuck on a bike. Which one do I choose? Well, usually I go for the "original LP" version, not only because I come from a time when vinyl ruled (a compact what? Yer 'avin' a larf, mate!) but simply because it's usually the first one shown on the page. Sigh. Let's see. Right: eleven tracks on the original LP. Let's see if I can find that. Hell on toast. This is hard enough as it is. Don't need roadblocks being thrown in my way as I hurtle down the highway to Hex here!

Well, speaking of Waits, MES sounds a bit like him, and so does the music, to an extent, as "New Big Prinz" gets us going. Now I know I've either heard this before, or they're reusing old melodies. Very deja vu, Mister Smith. Sort of a stomping beat, with MES shouting perhaps "Change (or check) the record!" Oh I see: it's based on "Hip Priest" from the Hex Enduction Hour album. I knew I had heard it before.  I don't know if it's that familiarity, but I immediately like it more than the previous album. Let's see if that holds as we move on to "Overture from I Am Curious Orange", which sounds like it should be an instrumental? I'm told Brix wrote a lot of this but due to their impending marriage breakup she wasn't credited. How childish of you, Mark!

Well the guitar here is great; more like something out of a metal or AOR song really, very full and solid, and while MES is throwing in lyrics I think in general it could be - well no it can't, can it? He won't shut up. Never heard of an overture with words before, but there you go: that's the wonderful and frightening, and occasionally just plumb crazy world of The Fall. Like this too. I can't believe the "Blake" credited on "Dog is Life/Jerusalem" is that Blake? And if it is, do I assume they're using the old hymn? Surely not. Well the first part is just MES talking about dogs, which isn't at all interesting, especially as he seems to be talking through a bullhorn (bulldog horn? Sorry) and there are barking sounds too. Is he barking mad? I shall leave that to be decided by minds immeasurably superior to mine, i.e., every other one.

Crap. This is meant to run for 7 minutes, which is long enough, but the playlist version is almost 9! Angels and ministers of grace etc. Oh yeah, it sounds like he's doing his own version indeed of "Jerusalem". Well. Not too sure what to say about that. "Kurious Oranj" is, like most Fall songs I'd have to say, pretty repetitive, with a looping guitar riff in an almost Caribbean style (I've been working too hard), some odd sounds - presumably made on the keys - that remind me of when I used to have to dial-up to get online. "Wrong Place, Right Time" is a bit of a confused mess honestly, with a parping guitar line and MES just kind of shouting the lyric out, though curiously (!) in sort of rhythm with the melody, such as it is. Odd one. That sounds like a busy synth line in "Win Fall CD 2080", almost a bastard new-wave feel to the song, like the kind of track that goes to the trendy clubs but gets told to fuck off, nobody wants its type here. Neither fish nor Fall? Sorry again.

I don't know if that's the new keyboard player's doing, but if so she's certainly shaping and changing the sound of the band, at least on this track. You can almost hear the outraged trapped ghost of Marc Almond in the music, like a damned soul caught forever in bubbling keyboard runs. That comfortable dependable bass line is back for "Yes, O Yes" with again a sense of sixties cop shows in it, also adding to this seems to be the sound of a siren in the background? "Van Plague?" seems to be more of what I would, at this point, and with my very limited understanding of them, call a "normal" Fall song, reasonably straight-forward, with a good melody and MES singing a bit more, "Bad News Girl" walks in on super-high heels strumming that menacing bass and dares anyone to make a comment on what she's wearing, a sneer and a smear of lipstick twisting her mouth. MES is using that megaphone he got for his birthday again, and someone is playing a xylophone, or the skeleton of a music critic who gave them a bad review, either is good.

There's even some sort of mad quasi-Pan Pipes thing going on, which is tres weird and twists everything up till I don't know my name or where I live anymore. Oh and now it's kicked into some sort of uptempo poppy ska tune or something, so different that I thought the next (last) track had started. As some blonde girl said once, curiouser and curiouser. The closing track, "Cab it Up!" starts off as a hard rocker and then gets peppered with synth licks and I'd like her to lick me sorry best if you forget you read that. Very poppy against a more rock and roll guitar, sort of hard to work out what it's meant to be. Still much better than the last album, not that that would be hard. We're back on track.

Rating: 7.7/10

Trollheart vs The Fall
Trollheart: 1
The Fall: 12
Current score: Trollheart 1 - 12 The Fall

[Trollheart]

Title: Extricate
Medium: Album
Year: 1990
General opinion: For once, I don't know, as there is no reaction shown. Oh no wait: further down Melody Maker praised it as "their finest yet" and NME gave it 10/10. Guess they liked it then.
Trollheart Falls in: I believe this then is the first album without Brix, shortly after she and Mark split up, and it's said (though I don't know) that she took with her all the commercial, poppy tunes and sensibilities, and that the band got back to being more of an alternative, post-punk one than they had been on the last few albums. Bad news (girl) for me, possibly. Certainly doesn't seem like MES is sad about the breakup, with the opening track called "Sing! Happy!" and seeming to feature him on violin. Ah no, "Sing! Harpy!!" is the title. Guess that makes more sense. Okay no, not him on the violin, seems to be some guy called Kenny Brady. A big hard thumping guitar and powerful percussion then with possible feedback effects, and he's back to talking the lyric.

Despite the title, perhaps predictably, the song seems dark and menacing, so maybe read between the lines? Or, you know, read them, but I ain't got time for that. I'm a busy man! I have other artists to sneer at. I wonder if the album title refers to his, as he sees it, extricating himself from the marriage? "I'm Frank" retains the poppy side of The Fall Brix was encouraging, much better, high uptempo keys and guitar and MES almost singing. I've actually heard "Bill is Dead" - think SGR you had it in a playlist? It's actually a good enough song, the lyric delivered in a bored, laconic style, but still more in the "pop" than "punk" camp here, if you divide Fall songs up into those two categories. Also a ballad, which is unusual for them. Love the keyboard melody here. Sad to see yer wan was sacked after this album; she doesn't seem to have been that long with the band then.

Next is another bloody cover, "Black Monk Theme Part II" (what happened to part I? Who knows?) which features a very sixties-style organ riff, the lyric changing from love to hate, and I can't really say much about it, as I don't know the band who wrote and played it originally, the Monks, so we move on to, um, another cover, "Popcorn, Double Feature", on which MES does again show he can sing when he wants to, but given that neither of these are original Fall songs they're only of passing interest to me. "Telephone Thing" sounds like it could be yet another, but no, it's their own. Very dancy, club-like song with rumbling bass and howling synths. MES is more or less talking the lyric here, but it kind of works. I see comparisons being drawn here between bands like The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, and yeah, I have to admit I haven't a fucking clue as I've never heard either of those bands. It is something of an evolution in their sound though.

Much more straight-forward is "Hilary", a simple rock tune with some nice female backing vocals, MES doing some half-singing, not much in the way of keys here though, while "Chicago, Now!" has... an oboe? A fucking oboe? Like, those things wot them blokes uses in ork-ees-tras? Really? Seems so. I'm not sure what it adds to the tune really, but I suppose it's a talking point. Certainly is getting on my tits, I can tell you that. Doesn't seem to feel it has to stay in tune with the music. Yeah don't think much of this now to be honest.

That leaves us with "The Littlest Rebel", starting off with what sounds like a crash of piano keys, them romping along on a busy guitar line with almost trumpeting keyboard runs, like something off a baseball game or the like, and we finish on "And Therein..." which is very catchy indeed and has MES coming pretty close to singing against an upbeat guitar melody. I see a slight change here in the move away from pop, but I wouldn't say they've Fall(en) back on old habits just yet. Well, let me grab me coat before you kick me out, won't ya?

Rating: 7/10

Trollheart vs The Fall
Trollheart: 1
The Fall: 13
Current score: Trollheart 1 - 13 The Fall

[Trollheart]

Title: The Dredger
Medium: EP
Year: 1990
General opinion: Unknown
Trollheart Falls in: Only four tracks on this. Proper EP stuff. Let's go then. Oddly the EP is not available on YT so I have to go looking for tracks separately. Whether or not they'll be the versions on this EP or not I don't know. Stop saying EP. No. "White Lightning" seems to have a sort of "Summertime Blues" feel to it, fast rocker with a chorus (such as it is) that evokes Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire". A harder, more stripped-down feel to "Blood Outta Stone", I like the guitar riff that runs through it, MES sort of half-shouting, half-singing the vocal, and throwing in the odd shriek here or there.

I get the feeling "Zagreb" may be an instrumental, as it's shown as being in three movements. There are, I think, some keys in there and some pretty solid guitar and - it's not an instrumental. Should have known. Can't take anything for granted with these guys. Pretty infectious melody, and the longest on the EP at six minutes, showcases the playing talent of the band, really quite excellent. It reminds me of something, and I think it may be Floyd's "One of These Days". Strange little bit at the end with vocoder and beeping keys; thought it had gone on to another track.  The EP ends then on "Life Just Bounces", which starts off with high tinkling piano notes and almost what sounds like strings, though surely is not, then takes off on a thick guitar riff which drives the song, and MES does his best to sing on this. Yeah I'd have to say I really enjoyed this. Glad I didn't miss out on it.

Rating: 7.5/10

Trollheart vs The Fall
Trollheart: 1
The Fall: 13
Current score: Trollheart 1 - 13 The Fall