A recent online purchase, one of three Fall albums that EBay provided while I was bored earlier in the week.
I told my wife that I'd picked up a couple more Fall CDs, and she expressed amazement that I didn't already have them all. The look of horror and foreboding on her face when I pointed out there were 158 Fall albums (according to Steve Pringle's fantastic blog), and I only own about 20, was a joy to behold.
I did have this one on vinyl, many moons ago, picking it up second hand from a stall on Deal market, although rarely playing it, because it was scratched. I don't remember being over-impressed, but I don't think I 'got' The Fall at that point. And on comparing the CD track list with the original LP, the CD with 16 tracks, is almost twice as long as the original LP, having the three singles and B sides added, something which changes the character of the album massively.
The overall impression is that this isn't classic Fall. It doesn't have the impact of much of what came before, nor what followed. The band's 8th album (because yes, Slates is an album) and the second with Brix, opens with the lively Lay Of The Land and 2 X 4 (played on the band's first national TV appearance on The Tube) followed by the very ordinary Copped It (which features the Virgin Prunes' Gavin Friday) and the lacklustre Elves, its main riff pinched from The Stooges.
We CD owners benefit from the single Oh! Brother next, still a great song with that distinctive Hanley bass riff, then Draygo's Guilt, an average Fall rocker. God Box feels angrier and more Fall-like at first, but starts to drag, and Clear Off is a rambling number with Gavin Friday once again guesting.
The 'singles interlude' continues with C.R.E.E.P., a bright little song displaying Brix's increasing influence in dragging the band into a more accessible sound, followed by a personal favourite, the thumping Pat Trip Dispenser.
Back to the original LP with Slang King, a fine song, which rattles along with a catchy keyboard chorus, unlike the more experimental Bug Day, which doesn't really say or do much. Stephen Song also fails to excite, as does the simple Craigness, and the final track from the original LP, Disney's Dream Debased just seems to fade off into the distance. But we lucky CD owners get the fantastic No Bulbs to end on, a high energy eight minutes which wake you out of the down mood from the previous three tracks.
As previously said, it's not classic Fall, but there's enough that is worth a listen, and the addition of the seven additional tracks to the CD make it far more listenable. There's much better to come!
3* - a mixed bag, but a few diamonds hidden among the ordinary.
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