Vanity and Presumption

13 March: 23rd John Peel Session - Sparta FC, Contraflow, Groovin' with Mr Bloe/Green-Eyed Locoman, Mere Pseud Mag Ed 27 October: Album - The Real New Fall LP Formerly 'Country On The Click' 8 December: Single/EP - (We Wish You) A Protein Christmas "Dear dope, if you wanna catch us - you need a rod and a line" I don't know why the group went more than four years without a Peel session so let's just be glad that they picked up the thread they left in 1998. And what a return! Best session since the late eighties/early nineties? There's a bit more urgency about this version of  Theme from Sparta FC  which really suits it. "Fantastic", said Peel. He's not wrong. Contraflow is up next. Ben Pritchard's 'choppy' guitar is a massive hit with me, but the backing vocals don't quite work as well as the album version. Green-Eyed Loco Man  is more guitar than synth-driven (nothing wrong with that) and is preceded by about ...

10 June - Live album: 2G+2 2 December - Single: The Fall vs 2003 What if all the world carroted and mashed into your eyelids? While I tended to avoid live albums 2G+2 makes the cut in that it does contain some 'studio' tracks and I did buy it. Not at the time though, I was obviously labouring under the misapprehension that this was 'just' a live work and picked it up a couple of years late. The live tracks came from the November 2001 tour of America.  I do find it interesting that the group are in a rare phase where there's no unrecorded material being performed. It's no surprise that most of the tracks are from the last couple of years (My Ex Classmates Kids, Kick the Can, F-Oldin' Money, Ibis Afro-man) while we also get The Joke, (Mr) Pharmacist and I am Damo Suzuki . The three studio recordings were last year's I Wake Up in the City plus New Formation Sermon and Distilled Mug Art. There's also some MES spoken word in the shape of E...