1997 - Ol' Gang
29 September: Album - Levitate
(Note to self - get your act together and do these more often)
As there's only one release for me to get stuck into this year I'll start with a more personal recollection. To my great regret (and not without a little bit of shame) this was the last year I saw The Fall live.
They were in my home town (at a different venue to where I first saw them 15 years previously), in a club that was well known for its indie nights and one where I'd spent many happy hours through the eighties and early nineties.
The group were not in a good place at the time and MES was going through his 'start, stop, take them off for a pep talk' phase. That happened early in the piece here with the group leaving the stage via an emergency exit. I can't remember how long they were off but certainly long enough for us to wonder if they were coming back. I went with a friend who, unknown to me at the time, was battling alcoholism. Apart from that I don't remember anything of the evening. Maybe I've blocked it out.
To Levitate then. Without going through this exercise I may never have played it again. I was thinking about picking 'I'm a Mummy' and moving on but in the sake of completeness I have given this more listens in the last few weeks than since release.
The opening 'drum n' bass' intro on Ten Houses of Eve sends a message that this is a very different Fall than previously. I'm sad to say it's still not one I'm overly fond of. (In fact the next five or six years of the group's output I find very patchy.)
Keyboard on Fall songs I love. Heavy programming on Fall songs - mostly not for me. It's easier for me to list the bits of the record I do like:
I bought the double CD with the five extra tracks (for £16.99! thanks HMV!) but that's largely forgettable in the main. Powderkex is a decent idea of a remix that doesn't quite come off and that's probably the highlight.
After plenty of plays I have warmed to the album but I don't think I'll ever love it. In the end it's Ol' Gang that gets the verdict. It probably would have been the case had it been an instrumental but after two minutes of the group in full 'wall of sound' mode with some one-fingered piano-playing over the top there's a brief pause, an oscillator of some sort and then MES joins in. It's not a classic Smith lyric by any means but that's almost incidental by this point. It's just a top tune.
"Feeling pretty Manc"
(Note to self - get your act together and do these more often)
As there's only one release for me to get stuck into this year I'll start with a more personal recollection. To my great regret (and not without a little bit of shame) this was the last year I saw The Fall live.
They were in my home town (at a different venue to where I first saw them 15 years previously), in a club that was well known for its indie nights and one where I'd spent many happy hours through the eighties and early nineties.
The group were not in a good place at the time and MES was going through his 'start, stop, take them off for a pep talk' phase. That happened early in the piece here with the group leaving the stage via an emergency exit. I can't remember how long they were off but certainly long enough for us to wonder if they were coming back. I went with a friend who, unknown to me at the time, was battling alcoholism. Apart from that I don't remember anything of the evening. Maybe I've blocked it out.
To Levitate then. Without going through this exercise I may never have played it again. I was thinking about picking 'I'm a Mummy' and moving on but in the sake of completeness I have given this more listens in the last few weeks than since release.
The opening 'drum n' bass' intro on Ten Houses of Eve sends a message that this is a very different Fall than previously. I'm sad to say it's still not one I'm overly fond of. (In fact the next five or six years of the group's output I find very patchy.)
Keyboard on Fall songs I love. Heavy programming on Fall songs - mostly not for me. It's easier for me to list the bits of the record I do like:
- MES' vocal and the quiet piano bit in Ten Houses of Eve
- Masquerade is above average but made to look very good by what's around it.
- It's a decent stab at I'm a Mummy. The group are having fun at least.
- Jap Kid is a curious little haunting instrumental (but why use it as the music for I Come and Stand at Your Door too?)
- Ol' Gang is great (more of which later)
- Levitate was also a contender for this year's pick
- Everybody But Myself after the dreadful 'crowd control' live intro.
I bought the double CD with the five extra tracks (for £16.99! thanks HMV!) but that's largely forgettable in the main. Powderkex is a decent idea of a remix that doesn't quite come off and that's probably the highlight.
After plenty of plays I have warmed to the album but I don't think I'll ever love it. In the end it's Ol' Gang that gets the verdict. It probably would have been the case had it been an instrumental but after two minutes of the group in full 'wall of sound' mode with some one-fingered piano-playing over the top there's a brief pause, an oscillator of some sort and then MES joins in. It's not a classic Smith lyric by any means but that's almost incidental by this point. It's just a top tune.
First time I've this without me head full of amphetamine.
ReplyDeleteS' quality.