Spike Magazine

Spike | 15 YEARS OF BOOKS, MUSIC, ART, IDEAS | www.spikemagazine.com
Review [published December 2005]
The Fall: Fall Heads Roll
Ben Granger
It’s time again for the Seer of Salford to blast forth his
enchanted bombast. With more albums now than anyone
can count, and with its title surely a sly reference
to the number of foot-soldiers fallen from his ranks in
the grand Quixotic battle, a new Fall album stakes its
claim. Those who care, care. Should you?
The trouble with a talent this unique rattling out at
the rate it does is that it gets taken for granted. Does
this album stand out enough to win back those who’ve
seen the band’s twisted charm in the past but who’ve
got tired over the years?
The patience of the part-timer is tested straight
away with first track ‘Ride Away’, a cranky simplistic
diatribe against someone who’s pissed the Great One
off; literally one-note in all senses. And yet at this point
the faithful (and yes, of course I’m one) will hear that
Mark E Smith’s always ugly, tuneless voice has, in the
end, taken on an incredible inner-poetry of its own. As
I believe John Peel once said, it really would be beguiling
reciting the Yellow Pages. And yet once Smith has
frightened off the chaff with this lengthy dirge; The
Fall are ready to thrill with some of their most defining
BUY The Fall music online from and
moments yet.
The sound of Fall Heads Roll is very much riffheavy
guitar based , with a decidedly minimalist
primitive moog-synth backing, eschewing most of
the dance effects which have appeared on Fall records
in the past two decades. Not that there haven’t been
great pure-dance Fall moments (‘Free Range’, et al)
but this particular fan prefers the purer approach on
balance. The brilliant minimalism of the early 80s
period is evoked.
And what riffs! ‘Pacifying Joint’ is an incredible second
track, with a machine-gun snare that will instantly
snag anyone who hears it. If they choose to rip themselves
off the snag that’s up to them, but it’s as catchy as
anything by Franz Ferdinand. And once again the “bla
blah blah”’s of Smith’s voice attain a weird transcendent
cohesion. By the next track more incredible hooks
with age-old synths are underway. And by the time the
pop kids are singing along to next track ‘What About
Us?’, perhaps they’ll scarcely notice they’re chanting
from the point of view of an East German rabbit (or is
it a Rabbi?) indignantly demanding that Dr H. Shipman
210
More
Spike
email
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z