Where to start listening to The Fall?

[the science eel]

My left field recommendation would be to track down 458589, but the bsides disks not the asides. Pat-Trip Dispenser! Guest Informant! Sleep Debt Snatches! Mark'll Sink Us! Hot Aftershave Bop! its full of good stuff

yeeeeessssss!

First CD I bought, put it on a jukebox in a little Yugoslav pub in Wiesbaden when I worked there 30 years ago, it soundtracked many many happy drunk afternoons.

'Mark'll Sink Us' is a big favourite, utterly meaningless lyrics but still hugely evocative. True classic Fall. 'Entitled' is another beauty off that collection, and 'Australians in Europe' is one of the best things they ever did.

[Johnny Yesno]

In Palace of Swords Reversed is as close to a perfect Fall playlist as you're going to get, but the runner up would be the CD version of Slates that had the Lie Dream/Fantastic Life single on it.

I hope the Palace of Swords playlists people put up on Youtube and the like have the deranged live version of Neighbourhood of Infinity with "giant moths-uh" rant at the end.

Looks like they do: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lYGTaQcsBUSsU8fTcYSHNDSvmEskLpn2M

The Man Whose Head Exploded, though? FFS

[non capisco]

My favourite Fall song of all is probably quite a layman's choice but what the hey it's Dead Beat Descendant. That frantic buzzsaw classic Brix riff and the opening lines and delivery "Here's a dance that is pure hell, enter at your peee-ril". I'm sure Prestwich's favourite autodidact goblin son would have baulked at being described as such but that song is just out and out fucking cool.

[bushwick]

I can echo what others have said - Palace Of Swords Reversed is a good intro to their work up to that point, definitely solidified my interest BITD.

I'd liked them before but yeah, seeing them do Dead Beat Descendant on SNUB TV was effortlessly, viciously cool as fuck.

I would say this: you seem like you are already predisposed somewhat and MES-curious, so just start anywhere and see how you get on. I don't think they necessarily benefit from linear exploration, you get themes and threads all over the place throughout the years. That B-Sides comp mentioned before is excellent. Differences in production style and use of electronics etc are always interesting, as despite their uniqueness as a group you can kinda work out what was going on in alt. music at the time by the way they react to it/use its tropes sometimes (eg the 'indie dance' flavour that permeates Extricate, Code: Selfish etc).

Nobody's mentioned The Unutterable yet, start with that one. Frenetic garage rock, some whimiscal weirdness, electronic trippy ket stuff (has dated quite well) and the indescribable Dr Buck's Letter.

If you like 77 punk, listen to Witch Trials or Grotesque. Witch Trials might not be as fully-formed but it's pretty breathtaking for how young they are and how spiky and weird it is - I can't imagine anyone else making a song like "Frightened". (i have a soft spot for teenage lyrical savants - MES, Dizzee, Darby Crash)

(It always bugs me how people don't see beyond their punk/garage stuff - I have a mate who is a techno/hip hop producer who also likes punk, and he likes 'Totally Wired' and stuff like that but I keep telling him to listen to 'Dedication Not Medication' to hear them make what is basically a very effective techno track, that late into their career with no begging it, cringe or overreach - artistically cogent and effortless)

[The Mollusk]

Did you like Stephen Song, from the same album?

Yeah it's pretty good aye

[iamcoop]

Yeah it's pretty good aye

Give the full 7m51s version of No Bulbs
a go then. If you like that banger then I suggest you're in and they'll be no stopping you.

[Neville Chamberlain]

Big fan of The Fall here - albeit only up to around about The Unutterable (not that I don't like a lot of what I've heard from 2000 onwards, I just haven't delved into the post-2000 output all that thoroughly, something that I fully intend to correct!).

I'd echo NoSleep's recommendation of Hex Enduction Hour, a big, beautiful, sprawling mess of an album that has that same immersive quality as Cardiacs' Sing to God. Paul Hanley's book Have a Bleedin Guess: The Story of Hex Enduction Hour is a must-read, too! Although universally disliked and practically disowned by the band, Hex's follow-up Room to Live has lots of fun tracks that get a semi-regular spin round my way! Don't miss out on Slates either!

I love all the pre-Hex stuff, too - really tickles my wonky, scratchy, post-punk bone.

Brix came along and shook things up a bit in a good-but-different way and there's tons of incredible stuff to lose yourself in. The Wonderful and Frightening World Of... and This Nation's Saving Grace are just bona fide classics, tuneful, abrasive, difficult, beautiful, mysterious and with a - to quote yer man Partridge - a weirdly haunting quality. While it's near-impossible to name a favourite Fall song, I'd probably go for Paintwork off of This Nation's Saving Grace. The way it builds and builds and builds yet sounds like it's been beamed in from a distant planet gets me every time.

As for what came after (1985 to 2000-ish, where my knowledge ends), I find it hard not to recommend anything - just dive in wherever. Everyone hates The Frenz Experiment but I love it: Carry Bag Man, Athlete Cured, Guest Informant, In These Times - what's not to love?!?

Bend Sinister is a tricky but incredibly rewarding album. They almost went a bit gothy here!

The only clunker for me is Code: Selfish. It just sounds a bit feeble to me, and I think the mix of electronica and rock worked much better on Shiftwork before it and was perfected afterwards on the magnificent Infotainment Scan and Middle Class Revolt, which each contain two of my favourite of the Fall's forays into techno/rock: A Past Gone Mad and City Dweller.

The Light User Syndrome is amazing if a little overlong; Cerebral Caustic sounds like it was recorded on the back of a lorry but is nonetheless often brilliant (though sometimes a bit crap ;-)). Levitate is just plain baffling, in my opinion by far the most wilfully difficult album of theirs I've heard. The Unutterable is unutterably brilliant. The track Two Librans is just wow.

[The Mollusk]

Give the full 7m51s version of No Bulbs
a go then. If you like that banger then I suggest you're in and they'll be no stopping you.

I feel like it might have been overlooked in my first post that I have listened to (and enjoyed) The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall a couple of times already after loving "Pat-Trip Dispenser"! Also that album title (even though I already knew they were a wonderful and frightening band) helped me to understand the band's music and Mark's sense of humour a bit better.

I've listened to the classics like Hex and Slates in the past and did think they were good but nothing particularly leapt out at me. I'm positive that they'll really click with me one day because for all intents and purposes they are absolutely my kind of band.

[the science eel]

Hex has a fierce and fabulous first side but a pretty half-baked second side. Nobody needs to hear 'And This Day', and 'Who Makes The Nazis?' is just rubbish.

[iamcoop]

Hex has a fierce and fabulous first side but a pretty half-baked second side. Nobody needs to hear 'And This Day', and 'Who Makes The Nazis?' is just rubbish.

Who makes the Nazis is CLASS. And Just Step S'Ways might be my favourite track off Hex. And I'm not really a fan of The a Classical at all...

Ah, the joys of being a Fall fan eh?

One album that's not been mentioned yet is Extricate. I don't think it's much loved amongst fans but I'd put it up there with TNSG as being a good entry point for the band, what with it being fairly snappy, concise and accessible.

In fact the whole 87-94 period might be favourite of all. The live stuff in particular from that era is just wonderful. 

[Martin Van Buren Stan]

Hex has a fierce and fabulous first side but a pretty half-baked second side. Nobody needs to hear 'And This Day', and 'Who Makes The Nazis?' is just rubbish.

Love And This Day though I admit it sounds like they were pissing around impersonating Beefheart. Who Makes The Nazis is naff, and it's probably the only reason I'd never call Hex a truly great album. I think there's at least one weak song on all of their albums though. Not sure if they ever achieved greatness on a single album, but they were very, very, very good more consistently than any other band.

[Jockice]

Everyone hates The Frenz Experiment but I love it: Carry Bag Man, Athlete Cured, Guest Informant, In These Times - what's not to love?!?

I certainly don't hate it. Athlete Cured is my joint favourite Fall song of all time. Along with C'n'C-S Mithering. Which before I heard it I assumed was about members of a family with the surname Mithering. With the I pronounced as in the surname Smith.

[NoSleep]

I'd echo NoSleep's recommendation of Hex Enduction Hour, a big, beautiful, sprawling mess of an album that has that same immersive quality as Cardiacs' Sing to God. Paul Hanley's book Have a Bleedin Guess: The Story of Hex Enduction Hour is a must-read, too! Although universally disliked and practically disowned by the band, Hex's follow-up Room to Live has lots of fun tracks that get a semi-regular spin round my way! Don't miss out on Slates either!

Yeah.. Room To live is another fave from that era, and all the singles that were released around that period, too. Also a couple of great live albums, one of which nowadays comes in a double package with Slates entitled A Part Of America Therein. The other live album from that period is Fall In A Hole (recorded live in New Zealand in 1982), which is packed with banging versions of their tunes from that era.

[the science eel]

Everyone hates The Frenz Experiment but I love it: Carry Bag Man, Athlete Cured, Guest Informant, In These Times - what's not to love?!?

A full version of 'Guest Informant' and the inclusion of 'Bremen Nacht Run-Out' (included on 7" in the original vinyl release) would have helped.

'Oswald Defence Lawyer' is top-ten Fall for me. His vocal is fucking A - on those long drawn-out off notes especially. The 'genius' of MES in full effect.

[Neville Chamberlain]

A full version of 'Guest Informant' and the inclusion of 'Bremen Nacht Run-Out' (included on 7" in the original vinyl release) would have helped.

Yeah, I almost forget the full-length version of Guest Informant wasn't actually on the original album. That's not like The Fall to be so bloody awkward!

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Where to start listening to The Fall?

A soundproof room.

[studpuppet]

Give the full 7m51s version of No Bulbs
a go then. If you like that banger then I suggest you're in and they'll be no stopping you.

I don't run/jog very much, but whenever I have, I run to this, and only this. It's the perfect tempo and you get a little lift from the riff when it comes back after the extended 'flip-out' bit. Play it four times and that's roughly a 5K run.

(It's also the bonus track on the W&FWO... CD from the nineties which makes that version of the album pretty much perfect.)

[studpuppet]

By the way, another interesting route in might be the mixes that Garam (of this parish) did:

1970s-80s: https://www.mixcloud.com/Bricktie/skinny-rats/

(Can't find a tracklisting for this one)

1990s: https://www.mixcloud.com/Bricktie/long-horn-breed/

Tracklisting:
Calendar (Peel Session) - recorded 1998, released on Complete Peel Sessions, 2005
Telephone Thing - released on Extricate, 1990
Shiftwork - released on Shiftwork, 1991
Masquerade (Peel Session) - recorded 1998, released on Complete Peel Sessions, 2005
The Quartet of Doc Shanley - released on Levitate, 1997
Life Just Bounces - released on Cerebral Caustic, 1995
Jap Kid - released on Levitate, 1997
Seventies Night - (NOT The Fall - Edwyn Collins feat. Mark E Smith) - released on I'm Not Following You, 1997
4 1/2 Inch - released on Levitate, 1997
Chicago Now (Peel Session) - recorded 1989, released on Complete Peel Sessions, 2005
Kimble (Peel Session) - recorded 1992, released on Complete Peel Sessions, 2005 (this is a cover of The Creators - Kimble)
Touch Sensitive - released on The Marshall Suite, 1999
Black Monk Theme - released on Extricate, 1990 (this is a cover of The Monks - I Hate You)
15 Ways - released on Middle Class Revolt, 1994
The Mixer (Peel Session) - recorded 1991, released on Complete Peel Sessions, 2005
Behind the Counter - released on Middle Class Revolt, 1994

Post-2000: https://www.mixcloud.com/Bricktie/the-50-your-old-man-whose-head-expanded/

Cyber Insekt - released on The Unutterable, 2000
Latch Key Kid - released on Imperial Wax Solvent, 2008
Your Future Our Clutter/Slippy Floor - released on Your Future Our Clutter, 2010
Black Roof - released on Sub Lingual Tablet, 2015
Chicken Yiamas - (NOT The Fall - Von Sudenfed - Mouse on Mars/Mark E Smith collaboration) - released on Tromatic Reflexxions, 2007
Midnight in Aspen - released on Fall Heads Roll, 2005
Jet Plane - released on Re-Mit, 2013
Alton Towers - released on Imperial Wax Solvent, 2008
Rhinohead - (Von Sudenfed) - released on Tromatic Reflexxions, 2007
50 Year Old Man - released on Imperial Wax Solvent, 2008
(note: I chop up '50 Year Old Man' into sections and delete a small section of it to help the flow of the mix - the album track runs at 11:36)
Taurig - released on Imperial Wax Solvent, 2008
Mexico Wax Solvent - released on Your Future Our Clutter, 2010
reprise of 50 Year Old Man
Pumpkin Soup and Mashed Potatoes - released on The Unutterable, 2000
Dearest Friends - (Von Sudenfed) - released on Tromatic Reflexxions, 2007

[Das Reboot]

The Marshall Suite (1999) was my gateway Fall album. Sometimes find myself wondering if I'd imagined Touch Sensitive being used in a car advert. But no, it happened*:

*see also: Sparta FC on Final Score

[NoSleep]

The Marshall Suite (1999) was my gateway Fall album. Sometimes find myself wondering if I'd imagined Touch Sensitive being used in a car advert. But no, it happened*:

A good time to mention this use of Hip Priest (from Hex Enduction Hour):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vVkyaZwmzk (in case the link above isn't working for you)

[cosmic-hearse]

Been mentioned a few times previously, but Slates is near perfect; arguably the greatest 10" ever made.

'Leave the Capital' might be my favourite Fall song. I've always thought if it as an answer song to The Smiths' 'London', via Arthur Machen:

[Dickie_Anders]

Shift Work legitimately is their best album imo, not a bad track on there. Levitate is a close second though.

Hex Enduction Hour I think is the best introductory album. The Classical is one of the best album openers ever

[Catalogue of ills]

Big fan of The Fall here - albeit only up to around about The Unutterable (not that I don't like a lot of what I've heard from 2000 onwards, I just haven't delved into the post-2000 output all that thoroughly, something that I fully intend to correct!).

I'd echo NoSleep's recommendation of Hex Enduction Hour, a big, beautiful, sprawling mess of an album that has that same immersive quality as Cardiacs' Sing to God. Paul Hanley's book Have a Bleedin Guess: The Story of Hex Enduction Hour is a must-read, too! Although universally disliked and practically disowned by the band, Hex's follow-up Room to Live has lots of fun tracks that get a semi-regular spin round my way! Don't miss out on Slates either!

I love all the pre-Hex stuff, too - really tickles my wonky, scratchy, post-punk bone.

Brix came along and shook things up a bit in a good-but-different way and there's tons of incredible stuff to lose yourself in. The Wonderful and Frightening World Of... and This Nation's Saving Grace are just bona fide classics, tuneful, abrasive, difficult, beautiful, mysterious and with a - to quote yer man Partridge - a weirdly haunting quality. While it's near-impossible to name a favourite Fall song, I'd probably go for Paintwork off of This Nation's Saving Grace. The way it builds and builds and builds yet sounds like it's been beamed in from a distant planet gets me every time.

As for what came after (1985 to 2000-ish, where my knowledge ends), I find it hard not to recommend anything - just dive in wherever. Everyone hates The Frenz Experiment but I love it: Carry Bag Man, Athlete Cured, Guest Informant, In These Times - what's not to love?!?

Bend Sinister is a tricky but incredibly rewarding album. They almost went a bit gothy here!

The only clunker for me is Code: Selfish. It just sounds a bit feeble to me, and I think the mix of electronica and rock worked much better on Shiftwork before it and was perfected afterwards on the magnificent Infotainment Scan and Middle Class Revolt, which each contain two of my favourite of the Fall's forays into techno/rock: A Past Gone Mad and City Dweller.

The Light User Syndrome is amazing if a little overlong; Cerebral Caustic sounds like it was recorded on the back of a lorry but is nonetheless often brilliant (though sometimes a bit crap ;-)). Levitate is just plain baffling, in my opinion by far the most wilfully difficult album of theirs I've heard. The Unutterable is unutterably brilliant. The track Two Librans is just wow.

Bend Sinister is a work of actual genius in my book. GB Grenadiers towers over almost everything made by anyone ever, and I will feed any dissenters into a wood chipper with no hesitation.

[the science eel]

I think maybe there's been a slow move from TSNG (long since heralded as their best album alongside Hex) to Bend Sinister as 'top Fall album ever' in the last few years - on the Fall forum, on Fb group posts.... I've always thought of it as an absolute top-to-bottom triumph, from the powerful opener in 'R.O.D.' to the crackpot 'Shoulder Pads 2' finale. There's a (mostly) consistent dark mood which serves the songs well, they're swaggering, Abbey Road maybe gave them a 'pro' nudge or something.

And yes, 'Grenadiers' is something of a masterpiece. They were playing at such low volume that they couldn't hear each other - hence the moments where they fall out of sync (which are really exciting!).

The remaster is maybe a good starting point (to go back to the OP) - excellent sound, second disc packed with worthwhile extras.

[Catalogue of ills]

I think maybe there's been a slow move from TSNG (long since heralded as their best album alongside Hex) to Bend Sinister as 'top Fall album ever' in the last few years - on the Fall forum, on Fb group posts.... I've always thought of it as an absolute top-to-bottom triumph, from the powerful opener in 'R.O.D.' to the crackpot 'Shoulder Pads 2' finale. There's a (mostly) consistent dark mood which serves the songs well, they're swaggering, Abbey Road maybe gave them a 'pro' nudge or something.

And yes, 'Grenadiers' is something of a masterpiece. They were playing at such low volume that they couldn't hear each other - hence the moments where they fall out of sync (which are really exciting!).

The remaster is maybe a good starting point (to go back to the OP) - excellent sound, second disc packed with worthwhile extras.

Wasn't it Bend Sinister where Smith infuriated the producer by putting stuff on a shitty cassette and then demanded that was then recorded again for the master tape?

[the science eel]

Yeah, John Leckie - but I think stories have been exaggerated!

You can hear what he has to say on one of the Oh! Brother podcasts the Hanley brothers have been putting out for a while now. I'd recommend the whole series, but if you're not a major fan you might want to pick and choose...

https://open.spotify.com/show/2gK9klVsdxYYjo8eBS9Pmr?si=isom37urSrWFDPVHn81DcQ&nd=1

[the science eel]

and here

[Catalogue of ills]

and here

Cheers for that. I just listened to the Peel Sessions CD with:

Cruisers Creek / Couldn't Get Ahead / Spoilt Victorian Child / Gut of the Quantifier

LA / The Man Whose Head Expanded / What You Need / Faust Banana

Hot Aftershave Bop / R.O.D / Gross Chapel - GB Grenadiers (fucking yes!) / US 80s-90s

Athlete Cured / Australians in Europe / Twister / Guest Informant

Incredible stuff. It just shouldn't work, but it does.

[the science eel]

It just shouldn't work, but it does.

What do you mean? That it seems amateurish, clumsy?

I love them but I think if any of us quickly formed a band we'd sound like the Fall - it wouldn't be beyond us. There are infinite variations on a two-note bass line - start that up, slam in 4/4 on the drums, then start shouting 'COTSWOLDS ANARCHIST!' or whatever (I normally hate it when he's caricatured like that but he did it himself many times over).

Hardcore fans say 'if it was that easy then everybody would be doing it' - but no, as the Franz Ferdinand fella says in the docu, they don't do it because if they did, everybody would accuse them of ripping off the Fall.

They were lucky.

[sweeper]

This is hilarious. Every answer to the question points to a different record, as if they are somehow distinct artefacts.

Listen, The Fall did change their style from one thing to the next, but the essential elements are: weird lyrics, primitive music, Manc shouting.

Wherever you start, you won't like it, but you'll stick with it and eventually it clicks. Then the whole catalogue makes sense. More than makes sense: it becomes the only music that matters. Within the non-sequiturs and insults you will divine meaning close to divine. You will be part of the cult, and all other music will somehow seem safe and guileless. You will listen to the Fall from waking to sleep, and begin to consider yourself superior as a result, looking down on your peers for their sheep-like adherence to shallow trend. You're marriage will feel the strain. Cups go unwashed. At night you grind your teeth.

Years can pass in this state until you get caught off guard by a Motown compilation in a shopping centre and realise you preferred pop music all along. In a single bound you are freed from the cult, and you breathe the clean air of reality, and see The Fall for what they are: a band that never learned to tune their instruments, fronted by someone who, at absolute best, is a deeply ambiguous figure.

Tl;dr: start anywhere, it doesn't matter, the journey is always the same one.