Where to start listening to The Fall?

[Martin Van Buren Stan]

This is hilarious. Every answer to the question points to a different record, as if they are somehow distinct artefacts.
...Tl;dr: start anywhere, it doesn't matter, the journey is always the same one.

Some of the albums are proper shit and others are very good, though.

[sweeper]

Yeah, but what really sets Grotesque apart from Missing Winner? It's like lining up dead wasps on a windowsill and deciding which one to swallow.

[the science eel]

Some of the albums are proper shit and others are very good, though.

Of course. And Shiftwork is proper shit

[Memorex MP3]

This Nation's Saving Grace was my starting point and with that in mind I can confidently state the best starting point is Hex Enduction Hour. TNSG is def one of the better albums but it feels like a less accurate encapsulation of the sound and imo doesn't have an absolute knockout song; lotsa good songs but in general the Brix era seems to have some of my favourite parts of their sound watered down a bit.

[the science eel]

TNSG is def one of the better albums but it feels like a less accurate encapsulation of the sound and imo doesn't have an absolute knockout song

[iamcoop]

Yeah, but what really sets Grotesque apart from Missing Winner? It's like lining up dead wasps on a windowsill and deciding which one to swallow.

Missing Winner is basically an Ed Blaney solo album with an even more pissed than usual Smith stumbling over sub-par garage rock. It stands to reason the best track is built around a looping sample of a Troggs song.

Grotesque is a masterpiece in comparison.

I get the point you're making but...

Mate.

[Jockice]

Missing Winner is basically an Ed Blaney solo album with an even more pissed than usual Smith stumbling over sub-par garage rock. It stands to reason the best track is built around a looping sample of a Troggs song.

Grotesque is a masterpiece in comparison.

I get the point you're making but...

Mate.

I'm saying nothing here. Nothing.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

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

Nonsense. On some songs your man says a variant of "we are the Fall!" and on some he doesn't

[sweeper]

Missing Winner is basically an Ed Blaney solo album with an even more pissed than usual Smith stumbling over sub-par garage rock. It stands to reason the best track is built around a looping sample of a Troggs song.

Grotesque is a masterpiece in comparison.

I get the point you're making but...

Mate.

Yeah, well, this kind of illustrates the whole thing. We can all agree that Grotesque is a classic and Winner is dross, but can anyone really articulate why? The basic elements are the same. What makes the difference?

[Jockice]

Yeah, well, this kind of illustrates the whole thing. We can all agree that Grotesque is a classic and Winner is dross, but can anyone really articulate why? The basic elements are the same. What makes the difference?

Point of order please. They're BOTH classics, although Grotesque is more so. If you want a really dross Fall LP I'd suggest Extricate, Cerebral Caustic,  or The Real New Fall LP.

I will die on this hill you know. Probably physically.

[jamiefairlie]

Point of order please. They're BOTH classics, although Grotesque is more so. If you want a really dross Fall LP I'd suggest Extricate, Cerebral Caustic,  or The Real New Fall LP.

I will die on this hill you know. Probably physically.

"And I will die ah, on this ah hill ah, mechanical geraniums!!!!"

[sweeper]

Point of order please. They're BOTH classics, although Grotesque is more so. If you want a really dross Fall LP I'd suggest Extricate, Cerebral Caustic,  or The Real New Fall LP.

I will die on this hill you know. Probably physically.

It's like you've put three identical rocks on a table and asked me to choose one, and I will be judged accordingly.

Which is fittingly Kafkaesque at least.

[iamcoop]

Point of order please. They're BOTH classics, although Grotesque is more so. If you want a really dross Fall LP I'd suggest Extricate, Cerebral Caustic,  or The Real New Fall LP.

I will die on this hill you know. Probably physically.

Cerebral Caustic is pretty shit, I'll give you that.

[kalowski]

50000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong is a pretty good career spanning (up to that point anyway) compilation.

I agree. It's a good way to find an "era" that you want to delve into further.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Light User Syndrome, Reformation Post TLC, Extricate and Cerebral Caustic are the shit ones. Reformation in particular is horrible, its not really an album its the emotion that comes with the realisation "there is no music on this disk, I'm just inserting my money directly into an alcohol addiction" sold to you in a jewel case.

The Real New Fall LP is wonderful. Winner is good too.

[iamcoop]

Right, I'm putting my foot down.

Extricate is great. How DARE it be mentioned below Are You Are Missing Winner.

No mention of Imperial Wax Solvent in this thread either which is fucking great if you ask me.

Ah fuck it, to answer the original post just get them all mate.


(Apart from Are You Are Missing Winner)

[the science eel]

Light User Syndrome, Reformation Post TLC, Extricate and Cerebral Caustic are the shit ones.

Light User Syndrome is fucking brilliant apart from two or three tracks towards the end.

Agree with you about Reformation - along with Ersatz GB, it's The Fall at their absolute, objective worst.

[Martin Van Buren Stan]

Would be interested in seeing all the fans here marking all their albums out of ten. Not sure I'm familiar enough with all their albums to do that

[MrSerious]

Would be interested in seeing all the fans here marking all their albums out of ten. Not sure I'm familiar enough with all their albums to do that

My gf and I went through the lot of them not too long ago and rated them as we went along:

Live At The Witch Trials - 7
Dragnet - 7
Grotesque - 9
Slates - 9
Hex Enduction Hour - 9
Room To Live - 6
Perverted By Language - 8
The Wonderful And Frightening World Of - 7
This Nation's Saving Grace - 9
Bend Sinister - 8
The Frenz Experiment - 6
I Am Kurious Oranj - 5
Extricate - 6
Shiftwork - 5
Code: Selfish - 6
The Infotainment Scan - 9
Middle Class Revolt - 5
Cerebral Cuastic - 5
The Light User Syndrome - 5
Levitate - 7
The Marshall Suite - 7
The Unutterable - 8
Are You Are Missing Winner - 5
The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country On The Click) - 8
Fall Heads Roll - 7
Reformation Post TLC - 3
Imperial Wax Solvent - 7
Your Future Our Clutter - 8
Ersatz GB - 2
Re-Mit - 6
Sub-Lingual Tablet - 6
New Facts Emerge - 6 (was 5, but gave an extra point for its significance)

[Martin Van Buren Stan]

Live At The Witch Trials - 7
Dragnet - 6
Grotesque - 8
Slates - 9
Hex Enduction Hour - 8
Room To Live - 6
Perverted By Language - 8
The Wonderful And Frightening World Of - 8
This Nation's Saving Grace - 8
Bend Sinister - 8
The Frenz Experiment - 7
I Am Kurious Oranj - 6
Extricate - 7
Shiftwork - 7
Code: Selfish - 6
The Infotainment Scan - 7
Middle Class Revolt - 5
Cerebral Cuastic - 7
The Light User Syndrome - N/A
Levitate - N/A
The Marshall Suite - N/A
The Unutterable - 7
Are You Are Missing Winner - N/A
The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country On The Click) - 7
Fall Heads Roll - 8
Reformation Post TLC - 5
Imperial Wax Solvent - 6
Your Future Our Clutter - 8
Ersatz GB - 2
Re-Mit - 6
Sub-Lingual Tablet - 5
New Facts Emerge - 5

Might give them all a couple of full listens and come back to reevaluate

[the science eel]

Live At The Witch Trials - 7
Dragnet - 8
Grotesque - 9
Slates - 8
Hex Enduction Hour - 8
Room To Live - 6
Perverted By Language - 7
The Wonderful And Frightening World Of - 8
This Nation's Saving Grace - 9
Bend Sinister - 9
The Frenz Experiment - 5
I Am Kurious Oranj - 6
Extricate - 7
Shiftwork - 5
Code: Selfish - 4
The Infotainment Scan - 7.5
Middle Class Revolt - 6
Cerebral Caustic - 6
The Light User Syndrome - 7.5
Levitate - 6
The Marshall Suite - 6
The Unutterable - 7
Are You Are Missing Winner - 6
The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country On The Click) - 8
Fall Heads Roll - 7
Reformation Post TLC - 2
Imperial Wax Solvent - 7
Your Future Our Clutter - 7
Ersatz GB - 2
Re-Mit - 6
Sub-Lingual Tablet - 6
New Facts Emerge - 6

[Dickie_Anders]

Genuinely surprised people like Bend Sinister, always though that was one of their worst.

[the science eel]

No, but it was the last of a string of classic albums. They cleaned up for the follow-up and were never as strange and unfathomable again.

[MrSerious]

Genuinely surprised people like Bend Sinister, always though that was one of their worst.

Any album with Gross Chapel - British Grenadiers deserves at least 6/10 tbh. Nothing else on it is bad, and a few others are superb.

[Dickie_Anders]

Never really seen them as all that strange or unfathomable to be honest. The lyrics are quite often nonsense obviously, but then so are the lyrics in a lot of pop music. A lot of the music itself is pop or pop adjacent, very repetitive and ear-wormy. Not that Hip Priest ever reached UK number 1 (though weirder songs have).
Definitely wouldn't think of Bend Sinister as one of their weird ones, the later Levitate would though.

[Martin Van Buren Stan]

Genuinely surprised people like Bend Sinister, always though that was one of their worst.

This is mad.

[the science eel]

Never really seen them as all that strange or unfathomable to be honest.

Really?

Albums like Dragnet are absolutely soaked in 'strange'! It's a big part of their appeal for me.

[sweeper]

The fact that Bend Sinister is being rated above Wonderful Frightening says it all really.

Do not trust these people.

[Martin Van Buren Stan]

Was talking bollocks sorry

[imitationleather]

Listened to Shiftwork for the first time in years earlier today and apart from three tracks that are okay it is seriously wank, I am afraid.

Was a bit worried that maybe I'd just gone off The Fall but it also turned out The Infotainment Scan still holds up.