Tight band, layered drums from a duo of drummers, pounding bass, lyrics half spoken, half sung on top, House Of All have taken The Fall sound and moved it on.
But they aren't the Fall, and Martin Bramah isn't Mark E Smith.
Yet we're listening to them because we loved The Fall, and want them to be like The Fall, even though we know they aren't, can't be and never intended to be. They're a bunch of mates who met through The Fall, and are enjoying making new music in the autumn of their careers. I doubt Mark E Smith's pension planning scheme for Fall employees was any better than Robert Maxwell's.
So what's new on this, their third album? The main talking point surrounds their third drummer. In Dave Simpson's book, The Fallen ("I hate that fucking twat! I just fucking burned it" - Mark E Smith) he interviewed every former-Fall member except early drummer Karl Burns, thus generating a mythology of 'whatever happened to Karl?' It seems nothing happened to Karl, he just wasn't interested in the book, (or perhaps not finding Karl made for a better narrative in the book?) but he is now interested in bashing some drums with some old mates, and he appears on six of the ten songs here.
And what of those songs? My initial impression was lukewarm. There didn't feel to be anything exceptional or awful, or anything that particularly made an impression.
But on my sixth or seventh listen, this one is growing on me. Opener The Devil's House rocks along driven by Peter Greenaway's jangly guitar, but it's little more than a taster, with The Good Englishman feeling stronger and more interesting. Queen Of The Angels is more plodding, relentless in beat, before Oh What Is Love Made For moves more uptempo, again with a guitar which maintains the interest. Infamous Immoral Sister doesn't really register, but the band really steps up to power through the fantastic Tempest And Storm, which rattles along on a memorable guitar riff, leading bass and multiple drummers.
O Dayspring, is again, a little faster, but fairly ordinary, similarly A Creature Came Slinking, and once again it's the guitar work which keeps it interesting. But it's darker and slower to the end of the album - An Apocryphal Dream does little more than plod along, and it's even slower for Born At Dawn And Dead At Sunset, yet Bramah actually singing means this works far better to close the album.
I don't feel this album is as strong as the first two - whether that's a real impression or the wearing off of any novelty in this band of the Fallen is debatable.
But it's still a fine listen, which stands on its own merits, and a coin toss between a strong 3* and a questionable 4*. But inevitably, as a long term Fall fan, sentiment overcomes rationality.
4* - Just; there's always something worth listening to when they get the band back together again!
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