The Fall: 29th Studio Album Due In 2011

I try and keep putting links to The Quietus to a minimum but I guess a lot of people will be interested in this.

Mark E. Smith claims next year's album sounds a bit like "Greek heavy metal".

MES, he's not from Birmingham!

Ha ha! You were there?

"These New Puritans... I heard them on the radio... they are the most irritating..."

No, just read the story there...

Ah! It is remarkably easy to confuse me...

"Ersatz G.B." is out this month. Who's heard it yet?

Anyone know about a planned U.S. release for this?

It's good but not quite bedded in for me yet. I'm having really serious trouble with my hearing because of an ear infection that won't clear up so frustratingly I can only listen to everything really quiet. Greenway is one of my tracks of the year though.

I've heard it. There's some good tracks (yeah, Greenway), but I'm not all that into it. So far, at least...

oh, time to turn on my excitement meter!

Every Fall album since "Extricate" takes a good 3-6 listens before I find my way to the heart of it and separate the wheat from the chaff - and there's always clear winners and lesser tracks for me. But which is which isn't always immediately apparent.

Doran, much respect for your continuing championing of this still vital band. Peelie would be proud.

Is Greenway about PEEEEDDDEEERRRR GGRRREEEEENNAWAYYYYYYYaah...

I'm unsure about this new one on three listens yet, but the song where Mark constantly rhymes about Gossip Girl plotlines is pretty LOL.

I had to choose half an hour play list for BBC Radio 6 Music tonight and they edited out the "I had to wank off the dog to feed the cat" lyrics from Greenway.

I think of it as an unofficial sequel to Gut Of The Quantifier.

Very interested to hear this. Well obviously, but also because Your Future Our Clutter, which I thought was excellent, had a couple of fairly exotic things going for it. One was that the first version was sent back by the record company with the instruction that it needed more work, and the second, more important probably, was the whole hospitalisation theme gave it a special atmosphere which would be unlikely to be repeated a second time. The albums previous to that, while enjoyable enough, were all super-problematic for me. So very interested to see which way this one goes. Saw excellent live versions earlier in the year, but that's more or less meaningless as a benchmark these days.

I don't find it as good as YFOC so far (Mark seems more interested in ranting than any kind of melody or repetition this time), but like that album it has a unified sound. It's weird to hear "evenness" throughout an entire Fall album.

I didn't get YFOC at all for a *long* time and then it ended up being my favorite album of the year, so no idea how this will go. At the moment, nothing grabs me...

Listening to the single today (Laptop Dog, Cosmos 7 (single version), Monocard (Lunatic Mix)). Wasn't expecting much, of this or the album.

But Cosmos 7 and Monocard are very good indeed! Cosmos 7 is rockabilly science-fiction ("FURY ON COSMOS 7! Reptilian mythical, sea tremor", then "Cosmos AWAKE!" repeated towards the end).

Monocard (Lunatic Mix) is a sinister and dreary 8 minute trudge, in the vein of Mark'll Sink Us and Theme from Error-Orror, that sparkles blackly and builds up great lyrical force as it goes. Appears to be about some dangerous malignant entity that the narrator is a guest of, ah, amongst other things ('At my peril and at your demand', 'Showbiz and apprentice kneel before, O! Monocard. Their Lord Monocard. His Grace. His perfect station.' It is one of those Fall songs that has a lumbering, perpetually slowing anti-momentum, which feels like it must cease under it's own weight, but is nevertheless kept going by a grinding force of instrumental will.

Laptop Dog is fairly anonymous.

I had quite low expectations, but now I've got very high expectations of the album. Good. Although I do wonder if this is the remix of Monocard, a song I'm already considering as unimprovable, what the LP versions of it and Cosmos 7 are like.

...(a couple of listens later) I'm really enjoying this.

Anyone know about a planned U.S. release for this?

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Friday, November 4, 2011 5:40 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Amazon have got a non-import version down for December 6th. Don't know whether such things are reliable info or not.

is that single available anywhere as an actual CD or vinyl? or is is still promo-only?

Well, apparently there is a limited edition 7" available from the record company. I don't know anyone who was buying it though. Not sure how limited it is, but it's hard to believe it'll sell out.

what label did this record end up being on? in the orig article upthread it mentions that there wasn't one at that point.

Cherry Red.

thanks, I just ordered it!

Ok, after a bunch of listens, very fond of this. Nothing seems quite as amazing/unexpected as the high points from YFOC, but it's pretty much solid right through. Anyone know the deal with the alternate tracklisting here:

http://lifeisnoise.com/2011/09/09/the-real-new-fall-lp-ersatz-g-b/

It's an older article. Maybe a mistake, maybe renaming of tracks, or maybe things changed?

tracks were renamed

1. Cosmos 7
2. Taking Off
3. Nate Will Not Return (originally listed under the title "Kennedy")
4. Mask Search
5. Greenway
6. Happi Song
7. Monocard
8. Laptop Dog (originally listed as "Laptop")
9. I’ve Seen Them Come (originally listed as "I've Seen Them")
10. Age Of Chang (originally listed as "Change")

they edited out the "I had to wank off the dog to feed the cat" lyrics from Greenway.

wait is the fall covering jon wayne now

i knew i'd heard that line somewhere before....

Maybe this is obvious, but I was looking around for some way to get the single and suddenly noticed that iTunes has it. Single version of Cosmos 7 I like a lot. It's creeeepy.

Amazon has it too.

really not feeling compelled to return to this one at this moment, sadly. none of the continuous and surprising highs of YF,OC - seems like there's a lot of waiting around for the good bits to happen on this one - a feeling i never got from the previous LP.

Has this been linked elsewhere?
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/life-lessons-mark-e-smith-on-bullying-the-occult-and-why-stalin-had-the-right-idea-6260036.html

wow, that is extensive, thank u

Yeah just finished reading that, thanks!

Really liked the last two albums but sadly not feeling this one at all. Happi Song is quite sweet but apart from that nothing else stood out.

I felt the same way initially, but it's actually pretty great...

One of the best interviews there, and they are never bad!

Second dlp.

Was EXTREMELY disappointed with this when it came out. Then gradually it just started to creep up on me. Now I think it's an absolute gas - it seems to hit the same centres of pure pleasure as Tromatic Reflexxions.

Nothing about it will reverse the convictions anyone who's come to the (perhaps understandable) conclusion that their best days are behind them, and that the albums are now barely worth listening to - if anything the opposite. But whatever it is that certain recent albums have lacked, this has got in abundance.

I think, I think it's got to do with the amount of musical detail and the fun Smith has with the vocals (which results in its own detail). So many strange details.

It should be said that the lyrics probably aren't up to much generally (although his delivery turns many a sow's ear into a silk purse), but there is some great stuff on here as well, particularly like much of the lyrical atmosphere of Monocard:

"I walk into village
Fate infected
Trenches in Hounslow"

etc

It's been said that every Fall album in recent years is at least half great and this one is no exception. It's also true new Fall albums take their time revealing which bits are the best and with each listen I find new things to love. Long may MES follow his peculiar vision!

Monocard is astounding. Why didn't I put it on my Fall tracks ballot?

Still haven't heard the new one. Bet it doesn't have anything as good as Monocard on it