Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Open the Box! The Real New Fall LP 2003..., 5 April 2006
While it's probably true that every Fall LP has a merit and should be owned regardless, there are a certain set of great albums by the band that comprises Mark E Smith and whoever else is in The Fall that age that are undoubted classics: 'Live at the Witch Trials', 'Dragnet', 'Grotesque (after the gramme)','Hex Enduction Hour', the John Leckie-produced trilogy 'Wonderful & Frightning...'/'This Nation's Saving Grace'/'Bend Sinister', 'Extricate','Shiftwork','The Infotainment Scan', 'The Marshall Suite' & 'The Unutterable.' 'The Real New Fall Album Formerly 'Country on the Click' belongs to that set of great Fall albums and precedes the recent classic 'Fall Heads Roll' (2005) that shows The Fall are once more on mindlowing form. This shows a return to form after patchy albums like 'Are You Are Missing Winner?' and '2G+2' and the 'Susan Vs.Youth Club' single which appeared to be less the fantastic 'Jawbone/Wings' slice of MES-fantastica and more evidence that MES watched 'Neighbours'!The album was renamed/re-recorded/remixed after some mixes found their way on the hic-wap-internet and was produced by Mark E Smith with Grant Cunliffe (ne Showbiz) - who has long been a Fall-associate ('Dragnet',the Casualty List on 'Hip Priests & Kamerads', 'Shiftwork', the upcoming new Fall LP) as well as a producer of Billy Bragg and Wilco. This line-up features three of the current vital Fall line-up, MES, Eleni Poulou & Ben Pritchard alongside Jim Watts & David Milner (who have been transferred for Spencer Birtwistle & Steve Trafford). Ironically Milner and Watts (particularly...) co-write here wonderfully with MES The LP opens with 'Green Eyed Loco-Man'which continues the indie-electronic approach developed over albums 'Extricate', 'Shiftwork' & 'The Infotainment Scan' and leads to the excellent 'Mountain Energei', which sounds like a more Krautrock take on 'Guest Informant' and has MES taking in that Zarathustrian magic mountainness. 'Theme from Sparta FC' is a bit slower than either the Peel Session or the current live version (a highlight of their set)- like my favourite track here 'Mike's Love Xexagon' it shows a complex use of vocals: MES against Eleni against the males with guitars. 'Open the Boxtosis' is another one of those Fall pop songs of sorts, while 'Loop41'Houston' joins the canon of Fall-covers, adding Lee Hazlewood to such names as The Big Bopper, Deep Purple, The Monks, The Kinks, R.Dean Taylor, The Beatles, Lee Perry & Chic. 'Contraflow' sounds more lively than bands like The Storks and the YeahYeahYeahYeahs, and in many ways is the same Fall that always were (...despite being a completely new band)Great angular punk repetition "I hate the countryside so much/I hate the contraflow so much") while 'Janet, Johnny + James' joins a Fall-gone-folk(ish) canon alongside 'Pinball Machine' & the recent 'Early Days of Channel Fuhrer.' Another great Fall album for your pennies, pounds, dollars and cents - it also features one of the all-time great Fall-titles 'Last Commands of Xyralothep Via M.E.S.' - one to file alongside 'To Nkroachment:Yarbles', 'Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot', 'C'N'C's-Mithering' & 'Pat Trip Dispenser'...Anyway, this was the LP where the Fall returned to the rude form of 'Marshall/Unutterable, 'Interim/Fall Heads Roll' (& hopefully the next one) merely continued that...
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best Fall albums, 3 Nov 2003
I've been listening to this CD for the past few days and am really enjoying it. I liked the Fall when they first started - Live at the Witch Trials, Repetition etc - and stayed with them until the last 80s when I lost interest. However I have recently started to listen to them again, and was very impressed with The Unutterable, but this is better. It is very difficult to pick out any weak tracks on this. There are the tracks with powerful riffs and Smith snarling over the top ("Sparta F-ah, C-ah") but also songs where Smith goes as close as he ever does to actually singing ("Mountain Energei" and "Janet, Johnny and James"). Each track has got something clever and interesting - and enjoyable - about it. I have read that this album was originally planned for release earlier in the year but was held back. It looks as if they have worked hard on the album to make all the tracks really good, instead of just recording for a few days and releasing whatever came out of it.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Country On The Click, 5 Jan 2005
Such is the proliferation of Fall product flooding the market that this album title was needed to guide the confused Fall punter. The subtitle is explained by the fact that the tracks were originally recorded between December 2002 and January 2003 and were mixed by Grant Showbiz and Jim Watts in February 2003 for early release as Country On The Click. Promos were sent out and 3 of the new songs were previewed in March on an absolutely sizzling John Peel session, their 23rd for the show.The release was then delayed after a mix appeared on the internet, causing a put-out Mark E Smith to partially remixe, re-record and re-sequence the album. The line up of Mark E Smith (vocals), Ben Pritchard (lead guitar, vocal), Jim Watts (bass, guitar, computer, vocal) and Dave Milner (drums, vocal) was augmented by this time with Elenor Poulou (the latest Mrs Smith) on keyboards, and heralded the Fall Mk. 30 (approximately). I believe this is the first studio album to be recorded since Are You Are Missing Winner (I could be mistaken), but a live album, 2G + 2, appeared in 2002. The material and overall sound seem to be the strongest for some years with Theme From Sparta FC just missing out on becoming the John Peel Festive Fifty No. 1 for 2003 (by one vote apparently), and fade-in album opener Green-eyed Loco Man also voted in to no. 26. Contraflow conjures up urban M62 hell with a suitably barbed lyric where Mark E counters perversely, "I hate the countryside so much." As always there is an unlikely cover, this time Lee Hazlewood's Houston, and the award for the strangest title goes to Last Commands Of Xyralothep Via M.E.S.
All is right with the world
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