Three from the Fall

The release of the sprawling, succinct, well-selected and perfectly titled career retrospective 50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong has given me cause to take a step back and look at the long, prolific career of Mark E. Smith’s band. For rabid fans, a “best of” is bound to exclude 20 or 30 essential tracks, destined not to be included out of respect for a reasonable selling price. This results in the fun activity of drudging through the Fall’s back catalog for some hidden gems–not included on the “greatest hits,” but worthy of induction into the band’s canon. I’ve thus decided to dust off some of the old LPs and offer three tracks from three “phases” of the band’s career.

First, from 1979’s Dragnet (buy), still regarded as one of the band’s finest works, is “Flat of Angles” (mp3). Essentially a slide guitar riff over which Smith riffs on the titular phrase (with what sounds like “platinum angles”), it gives the album its title and sums up neatly the appeal of Smith’s best lyrical (and the band’s best instrumental) work–it carves its way into your skull by force of sheer repetition. His voice is at once off-putting in its laziness, yet instanly appealing as the sum of its idiosyncrasies. It’s easily one of the most singluar musical sounds of the last twenty years.

Next is a cover, “Victoria” (mp3), from 1988’s overlooked The Frenz Experiment (buy), marking the Fall’s first step onto , and off of, the British pop/rock charts. The band has done few covers during their career, and this one is delightfully straightforward, giving a brief glimpse into Smith’s musical inspirations ten years into the band’s career. Thematically, one can’t help but remember 1985’s “Spoilt Victorian Child,” which tackled similar themes of British class and led to the title of a pretty swell music blog.
Bonus: A “meta-cover” from Sonic Youth’s cultishly adored 1988 Peel Session where they covered the Fall, of “Victoria” (mp3). It sounds like a rowdy dive-bar singalong, and I love it.

Finally, “Cyber Insect” (mp3) from 2000’s The Unutterable (buy). I can’t say more about this track other than it is completely irresistable. The psychotic go-go drumming, the spooky female voices on the chorus, Smith’s “all right-uh!,” and the sprialing, groovy ghoulie breakdowns combine to form one of my absolute favorite Fall tracks.

Filed under: Mark E. Smith  The Fall