| Reviews |
All Music Guide Review:
Review by David Jeffries
Having exorcised enough bile for two bands on their rickety release Interim, the Fall loosen up their attitude, tighten up their delivery, and squeeze out a rocking album that relies heavily on its highlights. Fortunately, there's plenty, most hitting with the thwack of the "Sparta FC" single or the Light User Syndrome album. "Pacifying Joint" is a punchy exercise in hooks and sheen, "What About Us" is snide Mancabilly of the highest order, and "Blindness" hypnotizes and chugs its way into the Top 25 original Fall tracks ever. Flashiest of the lot has to be a soaring cover of the Move's hippy anthem "I Can Hear the Grass Grow," a raucous singalong adaptation that brings sweet reminders of the group's take on the Kinks' "Victoria." Bringing up the second line are the usual brainy meanders like "Bo Demmick" and "Youwanner," plus the hip-shaking rave-up "Clasp Hands." Less ambitious songs and quirky numbers like the country-bumpkin reggae "Ride Away" and the lazy, acoustic "Early Days of Channel Führer" round out the album well, but some B-side-worthy leftovers tacked onto the end keep this from being Dragnet -- or Country on the Click, for that matter. Instead of just stealing the riff, "Breaking the Rules" would do better if it actually turned into "Walk Like a Man" and the Mark E. Smith-less "Trust in Me" is a fair Placebo-meets-Comsat Angels track that's horribly out of place here. Vocalist/Fall czar Smith is writing and singing with plenty of purpose up to this point, and if you hack off the misguided finish, Fall Heads Roll proves they can still live up to their legend.
Mark Prindle Review:
Fall Heads Roll - Narnack 2005
7 out of 10
STUDIO ALBUM #24 - Continuing The Fall's 28-year history of perplexing all expectations, nearly the same exact line-up that recorded one of the band's most well-received and consistently hooky records ever (The Real New Fall Album) returns three years later with one of the band's absolute weakest studio releases -- tied with The Infotainment Scan for overall lack of consistency, though this album is longer with more good songs (and more bad, but hey) so it's definitely the superior purchase. At any rate, how disappointed can you get in a band whose 'worst album ever' still deserves a 7/10 on any decently-eared music fan's scale? If you're that kind of asshole, go listen to Public Image Ltd's "Disappointed" and slam your head in a piano.
First things -- there is nothing overtly 'weak' about the band's performance on this record. They play with tons of energy, good humor and varied quirky guitar and organ tones, plus Mark's voice is getting even odder in its old age. Confidence abounds as well, with no trepidation in the performances whatsoever. The production is equally strong, providing that raw, crisp and loud rock and roll sound and making sure that every instrument is audible and zesty, nothing is digitally smoothed over ala Infotainment Scan, and there's never an issue of over-trebliness or lo-fi rigmarole a ler Dragnet.
The problem lies with the songwriting. Or rather... the refusal to do any. Half of these riffs are generic, cliched chord sequences pulled from mid-60s garage rock songs. And since Mark just says everything as usual, there's no vocal melodies either. If you're unconcerned by originality in songwriting, you'll love this record because it sounds GREAT. I unfortunately can't ignore the lazy fact that "Pacifying Joint" is E-G-A, "What About Us" is E-A-G, "Assume" is A-C-A-G, "Youwanner" is Bflat-A-E, and "Blindness" is SEVEN AND A HALF MINUTES of G-Bflat-F. And I'm aware that it's easy to go back through the Fall's history and pick plenty of songs that only have two or three chords, but these particular chord progressions are so dated and overused throughout the history of garage rock, it's an embarrassment to hear The Ever-Creative Fall relying on them in 2005 of all years. It's the same kind of crap you can find on any of these retro-garage CDs on Estrus and Gearhead and labels like that. Add to these five retreads a two-minute 'reprise' of an earlier song on the record and a cover of The Move's "I Can Hear The Grass Grow" ruined by Mark's warbliest, least melodic vocals EVER, and that's an entire half of the album down the somewhat disappointing drain.
So half of the CD is decent but melodically uninspired. That's the negative. But don't move a muscle because the other seven songs are up to all possible Fall standards, running the diversity range from pissed off aggression to bubblegum pop to sad minor-key waltz to cheery rockabilly to wistful hippy-folk arpeggios to bass-heavy Bo Diddley/mancabilly (with Mark sounding like an OWL!), with "Ride Away" serving as the most minimalist and silly opener since "Eat Y'self Fitter." The latter half of the record sounds particularly good after the up-and-down former, and the last four songs might actually be the best on the record. Let's hope they recorded them in the order they wrote them and now they're on a hot cooking spell!
It feels a little strange calling an album with 7 great songs "one of the weakest in the Fall catalog," but as I said, too much of this material sounds like the band couldn't come up with their own riffs so they just took 'em from old records. Plus the piercing, wiggly guitar tone in "Assume" is unbearable, making it possibly my least-favorite Fall track in recorded history. If I wanted to pierce my ear, I'd do it with a dull rusty nail, thanks!
|
|
