2015 - Dedication Not Medication

11 May: Album - Sub-Lingual Tablet

"how dare you prescribe me bed wet pill and deep grief?"

As with Re-mit the first time this record came into my life was via a radio show. Stewart Lee (the comedian by whom all others must be judged) was sitting in for Stuart Maconie on the Freak Zone programme one night.

Fall fan Lee played Auto Chip 2014-2016 and I absolutely loved it. As I'd struggled with Re-mit and The Remainderer it was a bit of reassurance about the upcoming album. Auto Chip sets a massively high bar but there's a lot of good stuff on it.

Venice With the Girls kicks things off in full-on style. MES gives proper singing another try and largely pulls it off. The track is given breathing space at points where the guitars drop out to leave bass, drums and MES. It works. Black Roof is credited to Smith and 'Dudes' Rob Barbato and Tim Presley who also recorded the bulk of it. It makes an interesting start but turns weird very quickly. Thankfully it's out of the way after less than two minutes.

Dedication Not Medication (the working title of the album) is terrific. Smith lets the group build up the dark atmosphere for a minute and twenty before he steams in lambasting 'Pierce Brosnan' (among others) for prescribing "sad grief, bed wet pills". The rise and fall of Smith's vocal line fits perfectly with the backing. First One Today doesn't hang quite so well together. The group don't seem to be always complementing each other. 

After a near two minute intro to Junger Cloth  Smith sounds like he's having the world's oddest eye test! "A snake 's', the numeral two at end, then a letter so simple, yet disgusting". Thoroughly enjoyable. Unlike Stout Man which is a re-working of Iggy and the Stooges 'Cock in My Pocket' and is a low point on the record where MES develops a new vocal affectation of 'geriatric without teeth'.

Auto Chip 2014-2016 is surely one of the great Fall songs. The rhythm section are completely dialled in to their work which gives Pete Greenway the freedom to drill his guitar riff into the listener while a 'suffering' Smith rails against English musicians. It's ten minutes long but you don't want it to stop. There's not a lot to Pledge! apart from MES going through his vocal repertoire to great effect over Eleni's keyboard throbs and twiddles. That's enough for me though.

Snazzy washes over me somewhat. It never really sticks. It may suffer from album sequencing, what with it being sandwiched in with Auto Chip, Pledge! and Fibre Book Troll which is now the monster it threatened to be last year. A drill-like sound introduces another rhythm section masterclass, holding everything in place for Eleni's three-note keyboard and MES bringing righteous anger down on his internet impersonators. And what's with the whistling at the end?

Quit iPhone is another rant against technology but musically the group doesn't hit the heights that a lot of this album does. It's workmanlike - at least until Smith's fantastic unaccompanied recital that closes the album.

In an ideal world the pick would be Auto Chip but as that first appeared last year that can't happen (albeit in work in progress form), the same with Fibre Book Troll (stupid rules!) so I'm torn between two - Dedication Not Medication and Pledge!

Let's take the former before I change my mind.