A mixture of lackluster performances and songs filled with vigor and fury, Middle Class Revolt is a puzzling proposition from the Fall. After two opening tracks that seem...
more >
The surplus of unnecessary, often downright insulting Fall compilation CDs can be confusing. Though they provide employment for underused sleevenote writers, all they...
more >
The title cleverly encapsulates the contents - the Fall's B-sides (45s) from 1984 to 1989. The Fall were a first-rate singles band, and the flip sides were often their...
more >
Smith once again landed on his feet after departing a label, ditching Matador in favor of Permanent, but Cerebral Caustic is notable for many other reasons. First, of all...
more >
The follow-up to Cerebral Caustic turned out as one of the strangest things the Fall had yet released, though it was also fairly prescient in terms of what would follow. A...
more >
In 1996, before the Fall released The Light User Syndrome on Jet, Receiver, a subsidiary of the label (and of Trojan) gained access to a slew of unreleased and rare Fall...
more >
Kicking off with the thrilling bite of "Pay Your Rates," on Grotesque, the Fall really started hitting its stride, with Marc Riley and Craig Scanlon now a devastatingly...
more >
A resurrection of a cassette-only live release on the Chaos label back in 1980, this artifact features the Fall in an Acklam Hall, London, gig. The D.I.Y. aesthetic of the...
more >
Mark E. Smith was always in step with progressing musical styles, even if his vocal delivery and abstract material placed him square against the mainstream, so it's not a...
more >
So named for very good reasons -- that's exactly where it was recorded and under what conditions. One of the various live documents that Cog Sinister started releasing in...
more >
"Feel the wrath of my Bombast!" exhorts Smith on this follow-up to their groundbreaking Wonderful and Frightening World of... the Fall, and this collection is ample proof of...
more >
During the mid-'90s, the Fall produced three albums for Receiver Records, all brilliant collections chronicling the Fall's archives of outtakes, live recordings, and...
more >
The third of the Receiver compilations consisting of live tracks and outtakes, this disc has a little more cohesion than the others, keeping in with one era of the Fall --...
more >
That the first Fall album in a near endless stream would not only not sound very punk at all but would be a downright pleasant listen at the start (thanks to Yvonne...
more >
Punk may have been the initial spark for the Fall, but by 1983 they had made it clear that whatever trend was next was not for them. Brix Smith made her debut with the band...
more >
The Fall's contractual obligation album. With Brix leaving (or left, depending on your history) the group, this is a hastily assembled selection of what sound like Frenz...
more >
The "various years" referred to on the cover end up being only three (1988, 1993, and 1997) and the recording dates and locations of the New York and Austria recordings are...
more >
Though Live at the Witch Trials was the first Fall album, the band already had some singles and recordings under its belt, conveniently collected on the self-descriptive...
more >
Bypassing their edgy, early singles and concentrating on their artier, more eclectic work of the mid- and late '80s, 458489 A-Sides encapsulates nearly all of the Fall's...
more >
These seven tracks are taken from the middle of a decent set by the then five-piece band and were aired as a BBC live broadcast in May 1987 that was recorded at The Rock...
more >
Again working with John Leckie on production, the Fall's third Beggars album, Bend Sinister, was a distinctly down affair -- not that the Fall were ever a shiny happy band,...
more >
The Smiths had divorced around the time of Extricate, but Brix's presence could still be felt on Fall records. Some thought the mid-'80s signaled an end to the ragged,...
more >
The Fall already had a slew of brilliant records under their belt by the time Hex Enduction Hour emerged, but when it did, the result was a bona fide classic on all fronts....
more >
So named due to this being a collection of stuff released on the Kamera label, for a long time Hip Priests was the only way to listen to material from the mighty Hex...
more >
The last thing most Fall fans expected the group to do in 1988 was provide music for a ballet, but in fact this is what they did. Of course, it helped that the Michael Clark...
more >
Arguably the essential period of the Fall was the tenure the legendary Manchester group spent signed to Rough Trade, during which time they produced their most arresting and...
more >
Taken from a The Infotainment Scan-era John Peel session, "Kimble," a cover of a Lee "Scratch" Perry tune, ambles along in a dub style, seemingly ready to fall apart at any...
more >
After the dark morass of Bend Sinister, the sound of 1988's Frenz Experiment comes as a bit of a shock. The arrangements are spare and broken down to the essentials, with...
more >
There are simply far too many Fall albums out there, but this combined reissue is a bit special. Originally released as a 10" EP by Rough Trade in 1981, Slates featured six...
more >
Returning to the indie label world with a bang, the Fall unleashed a winner and a half with Infotainment Scan, one of the band's most playful yet sharp-edged releases. The...
more >
The Fall made the leap to a semi-major label -- Beggars Banquet -- with The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall, hooking up with noted producer John Leckie to create...
more >
A high point of the Fall's short and not entirely rewarding tenure at Matador Records, the four-song Why Are People Grudgeful? EP is a clattering post-punk racket in the...
more >
The Fall's first post-Craig Scanlon album also introduced Julia Nagle, who took over keyboards from the departing Dave Bush and also contributed some guitar. Brix Smith and...
more >
The Fall's second album was also one of the hardest to find in later years, getting only sporadic represses and reissues. Though some opinions would have it that there was a...
more >
Calling this collection absolutely essential damns it with faint praise. A near-perfect compilation of the Fall's early-'80s singles minus a track or two ("Lie Dream of a...
more >
With the release of The Marshall Suite, there are probably an even dozen comeback albums in the Fall discography. Featuring virtually a new lineup comprised of untested...
more >
The first of what would be a veritable flock of live albums, some legit and some hovering on the edge of it, Totale's Turns, with the same lineup as Dragnet, found the Fall...
more >
Light User Syndrome is The Fall's first post-Craig Scanlon album, and introduces Julia Nagle, who took over keyboards from the departing Dave Bush, and also contributes some...
more >
It's the New Thing! The Step Forward Years is a truly nifty compilation issued by Sanctuary. The label has done two now, in this, the Fall's formative period, and in their...
more >
Two clichés to get rid of right away are that Time Enough at Last is another unnecessary outtakes-and-live compilation to clutter the Fall's unwieldy discography and that...
more >
It goes without saying that a five-CD box set of the Fall live in one of their tumultuous eras is for the hardcore only. The set contains three shows from April 2001 and two...
more >
A resurrection of a cassette-only live release on the Chaos label back in 1980, this artifact features the Fall in an Acklam Hall, London, gig. The D.I.Y. aesthetic of the...
more >
Adding a session for John Peel, a single, and a lone meandering outtake, the 2004 Sanctuary reissue of Slates fits well with the label's aggressive Fall reissue campaign...
more >
Oddly catchy and exciting, "Touch Sensitive" is like Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" mated with Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll (Part 2)." It's every bit as weird...
more >
Two years and 32 compilations, box sets, books, DVDs, and so on, since their last studio album (the lukewarm Are You Are Missing Winner), the Fall returned as a hungry,...
more >
