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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Arguably the peak of "Brix Smith-era" Fall--rousing, almost commercial, loaded with killer riffs--Bend Sinister is still one of the band's most rounded and satisfying records. As the group alternate edgy bubblegum pop and crepuscular experimentalism, Mark E Smith flits between playful ("Terry Waite Sez", "Riddler") and disgruntled ("Gross Chapel", "Shoulder Pads" and the fuming hymn of hate to the nanny state that is "US 80s and 90s"). It even boasts one of The Fall's mid-1980s hits and still maybe the group's best-known recording, their evergreen take on The Other Half's 1960s amphetamine anthem "Mr Pharmacist". One of the most advisable points of entry for Fall novices and a favourite of long-time devotees, Bend Sinister is probably the best example of The Fall as a great rock group: rumbling, potent and direct. --Taylor Parkes
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I came across this album having heard of the Fall but never having listened to them. I took a chance and this album converted me. Ranting, intelligent, funny, indecipherable lyrics, muttered or spat outover a tight band playing funky and catchy drum-rhythms, basslines and guitar-riffs. I've listened to it many times, with increasing enjoyment.
It's not of course for people who like pretty music, or songs that have singable melodies, but this album might please other people who like such things as the Pixies' abrasive "Surfer Rosa" or the Stooges demented "Raw Power" . It doesn't sound anything like either of those (much less "rock": "US 80s" is very early-80-s electro-rap sounding), but has a similar weirdness and a disdain for standard musical / lyrical choices. The lyrical scorn displayed on Bend Sinister sounds completely genuine -- making most pop/rock-stars' "rebellious" attitudes look stupid, imitative, unengaged and unthreatening. (What put-downs! "Couldn't tell Lou Reed from the Cure. / It was like being back at school!") And it also makes me want to do a mad dance.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Named after Nabokov's startling novel of the same name, The Fall manage to drum up the same atmosphere of dark gruesomeness with just the hint that they are in fact laughing about it all over an early evening sherry. I first heard 'Realm of Dusk' on John Peel in 1986 and realised that here was a band like no other. You can never make a compilation tape with the Fall on it because they simply do not fit in with any musical genre. 'Mr Pharmacist' is probably their best known song, and is the most easily accessible on this album, but to get to grips with Bend Sinister properly you have to listen to the triumvirate: 'Gross Chapel...' 'US 80s 90s' and 'Bournemouth Runner'. The latter is about the band's concert-set backdrop being stolen by some wag in Bournemouth.... no really it is! These three songs will draw you in a bit further on each listen and once you're over the border of recognition you will wonder how you ever lived without them. The hypnotic and incessant baseline to 'US 80s 90s' has been going around my head for 17 years and shows no sign of abating. If you're new to the Fall, this is definitely the place to start, as some of their earlier 1980s material and later 1990s stuff can be a bit 'difficult', and their later 1980s albums never quite captured the real Fall sound as did Bend Sinister. A classic that defies adequate description.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
There are times in my life when I want to listen to pretty love songs with beautiful harmonies. And there are times in my life when I want to listen to Gross Chapel. Just Gross Chapel, over and over again. That's not to say there are no other tracks worth listening to on the album - "US 80's/90's", for instance, is well worth a try - but after 20 years this is the track I return to again and again, and the one which makes Bend Sinister one of the most treasured CDs in my collection.
Put it on a loop and repeat-play it sometime when you're feeling down. See how long it is before you want to move on, once you've caught the bug.
Put it on a loop and repeat-play it sometime when you're feeling down. See how long it is before you want to move on, once you've caught the bug.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
BEND SINISTER indeed; DKTR FAUSTUS, R.O.D. & BOURNEMOUTH...
...RUNNER are on this seminal, influential meisterwerk from the (mighty) FALL.
Considered by many FALL fans (myself included) as representing perhaps the absolute peak of their... Read more
Published on 30 Mar 2005 by Jeff Markham
A classic
The Fall are the longest lasting UK punk band still existing, this is arguably their best effort and at the time of its release stuck out far from the madding crowd.
Published on 10 Nov 2003 by Toby le Rhone
The Fall at their best
There are a number of "Fall" albums I would recommend as an introduction to the delights of Mark E Smith and his crew and this is one of them. Read more
Published on 15 Aug 2000
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