17 November 2020

Band: THE FALL
Album: GROTESQUE (AFTER THE GRAMME) – the band’s third LP

Released: 17 November 1980 – 40 years ago today

AllMusic/Ned Raggett wrote: “The Fall really started hitting its stride, with Marc Riley and Craig Scanlon now a devastatingly effective combination, somehow managing to sound exactly placed between random sloppiness and perfect precision. The sharp rockabilly leads and random art-rock racket thrived on both counts, with Smith as always the mad jester ripping into anything and everything while having a great time doing so… As a side note, the hilarious music scene caricatures on the front cover and wind-up liner notes add just the right level of acidic wit to the proceedings.” Full review here. Score: 4/5.

Mark E. Smith: “I was never ever into all that punk stuff to be quite frank with you, or that new wave, it’s not what I was going for. I was just trying to do very basic music, very savage music, with intelligent lyrics.”

Paul Morley (famous former NME writer) about MES: “What if he wasn’t a genius.
What if he was just an old drunken tramp?”

Turn Up The Volume: The genial drunk tramp on a roll here.

Full album…

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THE FALL: All Albums

Back sleeve