The Fall

Amazing Artwork! THE FALL 40 Years Ago With Cover Of ‘HEX ENDUCTION HOUR’

Posted on by JL

Eye-catching album cover(s) art

9 March 2022

Band: THE FALL (Manchester)

R.I.P. Mark E. Smith (5 March 1957 – 24 January 2018)

Artwork: Cover of the group’s 4th LP (out of a total
of 31 studio albums), released 40 years ago, yesterday,
on 8 March 1982.

There’s a chaos of pen scribbles by the late great Smith on the front sleeve.
Just random (well, it looks like that) rhetorical phrases and sentence snippets
like “Lie-Dream 80% of 10% OR 6% over no less than 1/4 = ??????”,, “Hail Sainsbury’s!”,
“CHUMMY LIFESTYLE”, “HAVE A BLEEDIN GUESS” and “CIGS. SMOKED HERE”.

Afterward in an interview, Smith said that he wanted an LP’s artwork
to be the reflection of the content. He explained how he was drawn to
cheap and misspelled posters, amateur layouts of local papers and
printed cash and carry signs

And I just thought that Smith was bored and
started to write some BS just to pass time, while
waiting for the pubs to open.


Back sleeve

Stream here, 1 rattling hour of The Fall…

.
THE FALL: All Albums

THE FALL – 13th Longplayer ‘SHIFT-WORK’ Came Out 30 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Back in time…

21 April 2021

Band: THE FALL (Manchester)
Active: 1976–2018 / 31 albums

Album: SHIFT-WORK – 13th LP
Released: 22 April 1991 – 30 years ago

Note: ‘The War Against Intelligence’ was the original title of the album until the outbreak of the Gulf War. Smith agreed to change the title. Then in 2003, Universal released ‘The War Against Intelligence – The Fontana Years‘, a collection of Fall songs from the LPs ‘Extricate, Shift-Work, Code: Selfish’ and related singles although the UK was involved in another Persian Gulf war.

AllMusic wrote: “Shift-Work marked the sophomore effort from a new Brix-less Fall and is a slightly more subdued effort than the raging Extricate. It also marked a new direction for Mark E. Smith and the band as what once was repetitious grooves became interspersed with pop song structures… There are hooks and melodies here, and the group ineffably remain the Fall. The following year’s Code: Selfish would return to a much harder sound, leaving this a melancholic, introspective album.” Score: 2.5/5.

Turn Up The Volume: Except for a couple of good singles this is a disappointing longplayer. But hey, even the best sports athletes have an off-day now ad then.

– WHITE LIGHTING –

Full album…

.
THE FALL: All Albums

Coming Soon… THE FALL LIVE AT ST. HELENS COLLEGE 1981

Posted on by JL

9 January 2021

A new live THE FALL album will see the day of light next month. The Fall: Live at St. Helens Technical College ’81’ was rediscovered by radio presenter and former Fall
bassist Marc Riley and will be released via Castle Records.

Here’s a taster ‘Leave The Capitol’…


.
THE FALL: Facebook

THE FALL – Third Album ‘GROTESQUE (AFTER THE GRAMME) Released 40 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

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…

.
THE FALL: All Albums


Back sleeve

From A To B – From ‘HIT THE NORTH’ To ‘AUSTRALIANS IN EUROPE’ By THE FALL

Posted on by JL

The other side of the A…

6 October 2020

Band: The Fall
B-side: Australians In Europe
A-side: Hit The North
Released: October 1987

Australians in Europe
Never ever breathe
Australians in Europe
Get a whiff of Air and Helium to breathe.*
Australians in Europe
Higher! Australians in Europe

RIP Mark E Smith…

The A…

.
THE FALL: Facebook

‘THIS NATION’S SAVING GRACE’ By THE FALL Released 35 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

23 September 2020

Band: The Fall
Album: This Nation’s Saving Grace – 8th LP
Released: 23 September 1985 – 35 years ago today

The Guardian wrote: “As vital as any of the Fall’s 29 studio albums, 1985’s ‘This Nation’s
Saving Grace’ finds them operating just on the edge of the mainstream and at the peak of
their accessibility and yet strangeness. One of the great Fall lineups (Brix Smith and classically trained Simon Rogers augment the holy Hanley/Scanlon/Burns triumvirate) rampage through pop to avant garde to electronica to rockabilly to krautrock, often simultaneously. The band
are so tightly drilled that not a second or sound is wasted, or innovation missed.” Score: 5/5.

Mark E. Smith: “When I was 18, the vision was to make music that
didn’t exist, because everything else was so unsatisfactory.”

Full album…

.
THE FALL: Facebook