New Fall Album On The Way...

[good times]

any of you champs know where one might download said album? can't be arsed waiting another three weeks for it.

[Benway]

The CD version is released tomorrow.

My copy arrived in the post yesterday, but I've not had much opportunity to listen to it. First impressions were a bit "Fall by numbers" with the album sounding much like the previous album and the one before that. Perhaps it'll click with me after further listens?

[fit bird]

I expected as much, another disappointing album after the false hope of the absolutely stonking live versions.
At least he's toned down the growling a bit...

[benthalo]

Out today and streaming into my ears thanks to Amazon Cloudplayer. I'd managed my expectations down to complete disappointment so I'm quite enjoying it so far...

[Don_Preston]

I'm currently revisiting Ersatz GB. I'm not sure about the disdain it gets. Is it the snarling vocals of Mark Smith? The heavy metal music? A song about Gossip Girls?

[stunted]

That sounds good, I think I'll actually listen to it now.

[Milverton]

I was pretty disappointed. Snazzy is my favourite but I wonder if I'm getting too old for this stuff. I still love the old Container Drivers, Leave the Capitol, Blood Outta Stone classics but this seems even more wilfully obtuse than usual. Maybe I just don't have the patience to give it the five or ten solid listens Fall albums often seem to need to percolate into my head.

I'd much rather listen to John Wesley Harding or Street Legal.

[the psyche intangible]

Auto chip and Facebook Troll are fantastic, along with others.

It's worth a few quid if you ignore the growling or mes for most of the lp.

[benthalo]

What a hideous review in The Wire. I've got a lot of time for David Keenan as a writer but he really does have a massive chip on his shoulder about indie rock.

[iamcoop]

Not sure about the few tracks from this I've heard so far.

Every Fall album is worth a punt but it seems to be increasingly diminishing returns these days.

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

I repeat, this is their best album since 5 years ago. "AutoChip" alone carries it for me, but there is plenty of other interesting things going on, especially in the lyrics, which are definitely not MES-autopilot (though that's entertaining enough).

I feel as enthusiastic about this album as everyone else seemed to be about Imperial Wax Solvent.

[Jockice]

I'm currently revisiting Ersatz GB. I'm not sure about the disdain it gets. Is it the snarling vocals of Mark Smith? The heavy metal music? A song about Gossip Girls?

The entirety.

[Don_Preston]

The entirety.

I can see why you were in high demand as a music critic.

[Benway]

I've warmed to the album considerably now. I think that my initial problem was that the last few albums (since YFOC) have sounded very similar both stylistically and production-wise. The only tracks that I do not care for right now are Venice with the Girls and Fibre Book Troll.

[the science eel]

I've warmed to the album considerably now. I think that my initial problem was that the last few albums (since YFOC) have sounded very similar both stylistically and production-wise. The only tracks that I do not care for right now are Venice with the Girls and Fibre Book Troll.

My two favourites!

(I really like Snazzy too)

[Grass Mud Horse]

I was initially a bit disappointed - 2 or 3 good tracks and the rest filler. After a few more listens I revised that to about a third of the album being decent, a few more listens later and it was up to one half, then two thirds. It's now become one of my favourite Fall albums so I'm glad I persevered. But then I also really like Ersatz GB, so make of that what you will.

For some reason one of the tracks has different names depending on release. It's Fibre Book Troll on my CD, but Facebook Troll elsewhere. The latter makes more sense, and does at least correlate with the lyrics.

[Pepotamo1985]

The bulk of you must be listening to a different record[nb]or we just have different opinions n' shit[/nb] to me, because to my ears this is very, very easily the finest Fall LP since YFOC, and certainly one of their best from the past 15 years overall.

Not sure where all the complaints about Mark E. Smith's degenerating vox come from, either - I'm not hearing the guttural gnawing and atonal yelping that made Ersatz GB and ReMit such chores to listen to anywhere on SLT, bar Stout Man (where the vocals are obviously deliberate). In fact, his chords haven't sounded this full for quite some time.

The band themselves sound tight and vital, and I don't think The Fall has produced such consistently interesting and idiosyncratic noises in ages. It's also, crucially, busy. There's so much stuff going on all the time, I'm still hearing new snatches and undercurrents and subtleties however many listens later. One of the reasons ReMit was shit was that the songs were so straight; it was all surface level and singular. There was nothing happening beneath the main noise thrust. To understand what I mean, listen to Junger Cloth followed by Stout Man (the latter being easily the worst track on SLT, in relative terms), then Junger Cloth again. Really listen, on good headphones or something.

Anyway, there's weirdness aplenty here, challenging weirdness, new weirdness. Even the best offerings from the past decade (YFOC, Fall Heads Roll, etc.) have had a tendency to descend into muscular rock far too frequently; while often thrilling, still a bit comfortable and safe for The Fall. On the other hand, much of the stranger stuff from the same period has depended on electronic noise to get its oddity across. Delightfully, very little of that on here, on both counts.

Add to this, the production is fucking banging; layered, nuanced, clear, immersive. Ersatz GB and ReMit both suffered from shitty mixing (in Ersatz GB's case, I think this ruined a lot of promising tunes - on ReMit, it just made a weak experience even feebler). Real time and effort has gone into making this sound urgent and sparkling.

Anyway, yeah. SLT is fucking brilliant. If it's the last Fall record, they're going out on a blinder they can be proud of. If it's one of the last, it'll be a high latter day watermark to draw much comfort from when we run out of Fall. Everybody wins...

[Don_Preston]

The bulk of you must be listening to a different record[nb]or we just have different opinions n' shit[/nb]

Always enjoy a write up like yours. And Fall fans' opinions are never going to fully match one's own. I also believe it may be true what somebody on here wrote[nb]Caveat. See previous sentence.[/nb] that the favourite Fall period comes from when you first got into them. The first non-'retrospective reissue' I bought was Reformation, and even that was slightly after the release. I missed out of IWS for many year, much to my embarrassment. It was only when YFOC was released that I was parallel with the group. Each new album would entertain a depressed Lancastrian. And that's why I'll stick up for the Fall c. 2010-

[imitationleather]

Good write-up.

This post compelled me to actually buy the album with real money, which rarely happens these days as I'm a Spotify man. It certainly feels a lot fuller than Re-Mit to me, which I really enjoyed on the first listen but by the third time around could only find two tracks I could still be bothered to listen to. I think I listened to SLT about four times all the way through yesterday, which I very rarely do for entire albums. I guess there was an element of wanting to get my money's worth as real cash was involved, but also I was loving it oh yes.

At this point wondering how long The Fall are going to last is becoming a real factor. MES is 57 now I think and he clearly doesn't have the stamina for live shows he once did. Although I guess this is something people have been wondering since the '90s now he's knocking on 60 it's becoming a real issue.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

He's 58, and looks a lot like that actor who played the drug dealer bloke who was Psycho Paul's boss in "Ideal", you know the one with the voice box, nowadays (failing that, "the late Labour MP Robin Cook's let himself go.")

I have a theory that he'll carry onuntil he's 65, then retire to his pension, you know like proper working class folk do.

That album's a corker, they've got a keeper in the form of the guitarist Greenway, it has to be said. Just a matter of shifting the chords around for The Fall nowadays-well, isn't that, basically, what music is, finite fretboards and all that?-"Auto- Chip 2014-2016" is equal parts "Reformation" and "Blindness", but with a proper, Krautrocky dynamism to it,  when The Fall hit the spot, they hit the spot. Love how the vocals get incrementally more shouty and growly on the last two songs, and it would be nice to think that the lyrics to "Quit iPhone" were deliberately inane ("Ooooh, put that pesky phone away! There's no need for it!").Oh, and MES's whistling has come on leaps and bounds, if that 30 second coda on "Fibre Book Troll" is him.

Here's to seven more years, then. We're guaranteed at least three more decent albums (and four crap ones).

"Stemroach" something like that, that was the character's name in "Ideal" (Quit Google!)

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

The bulk of you must be listening to a different record

The vinyl and digital versions are different mixes. So yes, it's entirely possible people are hearing different versions.

[the psyche intangible]

The sound of the vinyl is a lot better and the mixes on the CD are more favourable to me. That's after just one listen to the wax so things could change...

[Egyptian Feast]

The vinyl does sound great, but the CD versions of Dedication, Auto Chip and (especially) Fibre Book Troll are way better, so the CD wins for me.

[hedgehog90]

I started this thread so I suppose I should chip in with my own opinion.
I've only listened to this a couple times, but I don't think repeated listens will offer much more than I've already got out of it.
I enjoyed the first 3 tracks the most, especially Dedication Not Medication, but the rest of it just sounds like typical tried and tested Fall, nothing special. I disliked Auto Chip and Facebook Troll, not sure why these tracks are being highlighted as many people's favourites.
I suppose Stout Man was another highlight, but again I should make clear, I'm not crazy about any of these songs compared to anything off of OFYC or IWS.
I thought Smith's voice was actually surprisingly good compared to recent albums.
I still believe they've got a couple more decent albums in them but this ain't one of em (it's better than Ersatz GB though)

[Jockice]

Old baldies banned! Er....


http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/mark-e-smiths-guide-to-britain?utm_source=noiseyfbuk