Narnack
2005
At last a new Fall album! American label Narnack picked the group up and for the first time the U.S. release appears before the British. I don’t know if it’s the American engineers, but this album plain out rocks more than any album the group has done. (The last one, the UK “Real New Fall Album” had absolutely no bass on it). I mean, on “What About Us,” when the bass kicks in, the Fall sound seriously heavy and hard, man. Woo! The album opener “Ride Away” is one of the weakest on the album, though–absolutely mystifying why they chose this to start with. (Although, as with most dull Fall songs, there’s one redeeming feature. For “Ride Away” its when Mark E. Smith says “Hey hey” as if he’s just realized he’s in a dumb song.
But that’s what I love about the Fall–the wry smile that cracks across the face when Mr. Smith gets in a good line, or a particularly tweaked delivery. The “WHUP!” on “YouWanna” or the “BaBaBaBa” on “What About Us”.
The centerpiece is the seven-minute “Blindness,” which is the heaviest slab of Fall prole art threat they’ve laid down since “Big New Prinz”. I don’t know if I prefer it to the thumping Peel Session version (as it omits the classic line “You expected-ah Aristotle Onassis. But instead, you got Mr. James Fennings, of Prestwick, in Cumbria!”). But then again, Smith quotes his own “Chicago Now” much to my delight. And the additional synth chords started to remind me of Faust, which is never a bad thing.
Then there’s the cover of the Move’s “I Can Hear the Grass Grow”, which is one of the best covers they’ve done in some time (recently the covers have been the least interesting songs, such as “Houston” and whatever the songs were on “Are You Are Missing Winner,” which I never listen to).
Not everything works, of course. The opening song, of course–although it might have if placed somewhere else, or thrown into shuffle play. “Early Days of Channel Fuhrer” is just okay, and “Trust in Me,” which sounds like “Gross Chapel,” but played very fast, would be excellent if only Mark E. Smith sang on it. Why end the album with this band piece, I wonder?
Overall, though…bloody top darts!
ALSO: There’s a good Fall interview (and excellent photo) over at Pitchfork.