1999 - (Jung Nev's) Antidotes
22 March: Single - Touch Sensitive
19 April: Album - The Marshall Suite
16 August: Single - F-'Oldin' Money
I find myself at odds with The Fall cognoscenti at times about the group's more lightweight 'poppier' songs. I tend to like them because well, rather The Fall do this stuff properly than anyone else right?
So I love Touch Sensitive. OK - it's a long way from a great Smith lyric or delivery but it just works. Having said that, I don't think we needed the seven minute dance version.
If you're here you probably know that it was used in a Vauxhall Corsa ad and sparked a court case so I'll leave that there and give you a link to the court judgement if you want a dull read for half an hour.
The Marshall Suite continued the run of nineties 'good in parts' albums. It started with the two singles (Touch Sensitive and F-'Oldin' Money) released in 1999 and the next four tracks all appeared on last year's (second) Peel session.
Shake-Off and Bound are much more together than last year's versions. Shake-Off in particular has a darker electronic feel and is a perfect foil for MES vocal repertoire. Shouting, whispering, attempted singing - it's a great bit of Fall sound.
The same can't be said for This Perfect Day. It's not an improvement on the Peel session and it's probably best that it comes and goes so quickly. Thankfully we bounce straight back with (Jung Nev's) Antidotes, a bass-driven electronic power number that... well, do you know that 'Maxell break the sound barrier' tv ad with Pete Murphy out of Bauhaus from years gone by? That's the effect Antidotes has!
But then we kind of run out of steam. Inevitable has the feel of a song that would be better at home on an early 90s record like Shift-Work or Middle Class Revolt, Anecdotes + Antidotes in B# (a funkabilly? interpretation) doesn't come close to the main version.
Early Life of Crying Marshal is little more than incidental music leading into The Crying Marshal itself. It's a return to the drum and bass style of Levitate that some people are a fan of but I'm less keen on.
Birthday Song is a 'love poem' that MES wrote to accompany a sweet Julia Nagle instrumental. I say love poem but there are shades here that suggest the narrator might be well, dead. Mad.Men-eng.dog is a mess and the album finishes with On My Own, a piano-based re-working of Everybody But Myself from Levitate that is inoffensive at best.
F-'Oldin' Money is a great run at an old rockabilly number but seemed a contrary choice for the second single this year. Along with that came another Perfect Day (with a very strange high-pitched MES vocal), a different Crying Marshall, plus Tom Raggazzi - a kind of reggae Antidotes. I don't think any of these especially enrich The Fall catalogue.
When I sat down to write this I was convinced I'd pick Touch Sensitive. On repeated listening though I'd put it third behind Shake-off and (Jung Nev's) Antidotes.
The latter gets the nod as this year's choice. Don't give any thought as to what MES might be on about and just crank it up as loud as you can handle.
19 April: Album - The Marshall Suite
16 August: Single - F-'Oldin' Money
"Where chewing gun is chewed, the chewer is pursued"
I find myself at odds with The Fall cognoscenti at times about the group's more lightweight 'poppier' songs. I tend to like them because well, rather The Fall do this stuff properly than anyone else right?
So I love Touch Sensitive. OK - it's a long way from a great Smith lyric or delivery but it just works. Having said that, I don't think we needed the seven minute dance version.
If you're here you probably know that it was used in a Vauxhall Corsa ad and sparked a court case so I'll leave that there and give you a link to the court judgement if you want a dull read for half an hour.
The Marshall Suite continued the run of nineties 'good in parts' albums. It started with the two singles (Touch Sensitive and F-'Oldin' Money) released in 1999 and the next four tracks all appeared on last year's (second) Peel session.
Shake-Off and Bound are much more together than last year's versions. Shake-Off in particular has a darker electronic feel and is a perfect foil for MES vocal repertoire. Shouting, whispering, attempted singing - it's a great bit of Fall sound.
The same can't be said for This Perfect Day. It's not an improvement on the Peel session and it's probably best that it comes and goes so quickly. Thankfully we bounce straight back with (Jung Nev's) Antidotes, a bass-driven electronic power number that... well, do you know that 'Maxell break the sound barrier' tv ad with Pete Murphy out of Bauhaus from years gone by? That's the effect Antidotes has!
But then we kind of run out of steam. Inevitable has the feel of a song that would be better at home on an early 90s record like Shift-Work or Middle Class Revolt, Anecdotes + Antidotes in B# (a funkabilly? interpretation) doesn't come close to the main version.
Early Life of Crying Marshal is little more than incidental music leading into The Crying Marshal itself. It's a return to the drum and bass style of Levitate that some people are a fan of but I'm less keen on.
Birthday Song is a 'love poem' that MES wrote to accompany a sweet Julia Nagle instrumental. I say love poem but there are shades here that suggest the narrator might be well, dead. Mad.Men-eng.dog is a mess and the album finishes with On My Own, a piano-based re-working of Everybody But Myself from Levitate that is inoffensive at best.
F-'Oldin' Money is a great run at an old rockabilly number but seemed a contrary choice for the second single this year. Along with that came another Perfect Day (with a very strange high-pitched MES vocal), a different Crying Marshall, plus Tom Raggazzi - a kind of reggae Antidotes. I don't think any of these especially enrich The Fall catalogue.
When I sat down to write this I was convinced I'd pick Touch Sensitive. On repeated listening though I'd put it third behind Shake-off and (Jung Nev's) Antidotes.
The latter gets the nod as this year's choice. Don't give any thought as to what MES might be on about and just crank it up as loud as you can handle.
I'd have chosen Shake-Off myself, but JNA is a cracking choice.
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