| Artist |
The Fall |
| Album Title: |
Imperial Wax Solvent |
| Album Cover: |
 |
| Primary Genre |
Alternative & Punk: General Alternative |
| Format |
CD |
| Released |
04/28/2008 |
| Label |
Sanctuary Records Group, LTD. |
| Catalog No |
1765729 |
| Bar Code No |
6 02517 65729 8 |
| Packaging |
CD Keepcase |
| Tracks |
| 1.
|
Alton Towers (3:26)
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| 2.
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Wolf Kidult Man (3:02)
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| 3.
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50 Year Old Man (11:33)
|
| 4.
|
I've Been Duped (2:41)
|
| 5.
|
Strange Town (5:39)
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| 6.
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Taurig (2:56)
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| 7.
|
Can Can Summer (3:06)
|
| 8.
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Tommy Shooter (3:43)
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| 9.
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Latch Key Kid (3:18)
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| 10.
|
Is This New (2:11)
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| 11.
|
Senior Twilight Stock Replacer (3:06)
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| 12.
|
Exploding Chimney (2:29)
|
|
| Date Acquired |
06/10/2008 |
| Personal Rating |
 |
| Acquired from |
A1 Books (Amazon) |
| Purchase Price |
20.66 |
Web Links |
All Music Guide Entry:
Discogs Entry:
The Fall online - Discography: singles & albums |
Notes |
foobar2000 1.2.9 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2014-12-28 20:25:30
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: The Fall / Imperial Wax Solvent
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR9 -0.10 dB -10.52 dB 3:27 01-Alton Towers
DR7 -0.10 dB -8.05 dB 3:03 02-Wolf Kidult Man
DR4 -0.10 dB -6.54 dB 11:33 03-50 Year Old Man
DR5 -0.10 dB -5.58 dB 2:42 04-I've Been Duped
DR9 -0.10 dB -9.82 dB 5:39 05-Strange Town
DR8 -0.10 dB -8.77 dB 2:57 06-Taurig
DR6 -0.10 dB -7.89 dB 3:06 07-Can Can Summer
DR7 -0.10 dB -7.85 dB 3:44 08-Tommy Shooter
DR6 -0.10 dB -7.63 dB 3:19 09-Latch Key Kid
DR8 -0.10 dB -9.23 dB 2:12 10-Is This New
DR8 -0.10 dB -9.64 dB 3:06 11-Senior Twilight Stock Replacer
DR7 -0.10 dB -7.34 dB 2:30 12-Exploding Chimney
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of tracks: 12
Official DR value: DR7
Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 888 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================
|
|
| Reviews |
All Music Guide Review:
Review by David Jeffries
Recorded after a tour that found leader/vocalist/lyricist Mark E. Smith handing out his umpteenth set of pink-slips and changing about half the band, Imperial Wax Solvent is a surprisingly vital and solid release, benefiting from a hungry young band under the guidance of a veteran who is inspired, jaded, and often sounds twice as hungry as the young bucks. After getting the artful, "difficult" number out of the way ("Alton Towers") and riffling through the garage rock-loving song ("Wolf Kidult Man") that's a hallmark of every great Fall album, Smith speaks to his age with the monolithic, 11-plus minute highlight "50 Year Old Man" ("I'm a fifty year old man/What you gonna do about it?") where buzzing, throbbing, and quintessential riffing from the band gives way to rustic banjo plucking right before the free jazz freak-out comes in. Even in a discography filled with legendary maverick tracks, "50 Year Old Man" is a standout, one that contains the great Smith insult "You're a gym teacher/You're a cancer/And I expect/A little shit." This beast is tempered with the following "I've Been Duped" where Eleni Polou -- returning bandmember and Smith's wife -- delivers a punkish and ever so simple hook as the gripping guitar and drum throb returns. "Taurig" brings the early Devo-styled electronics, "Tommy Shooter" is a midtempo, full-bodied winner, while "Latch Key Kid" returns to the first person rebellion against the stereotypes with "Got my muso wit/Can't do up my zip/I'm a latch key kid." Every necessary bit of Imperial Wax Solvent proves Smith is not the mess he's been painted as, and while it would be nice to say it's everything great about his Fall in equal shares, that breakaway single like "Cruiser's Creek" or "Touch Sensitive" is missing, unless the rock-solid hook of "Senior Twilight Stock Replacer" can overcome its the unmanageable title. This is top-shelf Fall, but it's best for those who have already studied one or two of their other masterpieces.
Mark Prindle Review:
Imperial Wax Solvent - Sanctuary 2008
8 out of 10
STUDIO ALBUM #26 - Upon first listen, I punched Mark Smith in the face, calling him "You Lazy Asshole" and "Guy Whose New Album Sounds Like A Bunch Of Demos." But upon repeated listens, I realized that -- as messy, drunken and ridiculous this album is -- it's also fun as hell and tons less predictable than the last two. There is NO WAY that this shambling collection of disconnected 'whatever's is going to earn The Fall any new followers, but if you're already a fan and are okay with the fact that you're not getting The Real New Fall Album II: The Real Newer Fall Album (Formerly Country On The Click II: Countrier On The Click) here, I implore you to turn on the lighthouse of your soul and guide this latest disaster to the shores of your shelf.
What exactly do I mean by "disconnected 'whatever's"? Well, they ARE songs, absolutely; this isn't a Mark E. solo album or another Levitate. But the pacing, the order, the arrangements, the fact that all these songs are on the same record -- by any normal standard of album-making, Imperial Wax Solvent gets these elements all wrong! Nobody but The Fall (by which I mean "Mark E. Smith") would release an album that reads like this:
1. A jazz song by The Fall!? The third in a series of wonderfully "WTF!?" album-openers, it sounds like dropping acid in a tiki bar!
2. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-excellent pissed-off rock stomper!
3. An eleven-and-a-half-minute six-part meandering epic, highlighted by its unexpected banjo hoedown portion. NOTE: ALWAYS PUT AN 11-AND-A-HALF-MINUTE SONG THIRD ON YOUR ALBUM SO THE WHOLE THING JUST STOPS DEAD RIGHT AS IT'S GETTING GOING
4. Adorable girl-sung bubblegum pop!
5. Groundhogs cover. A completely generic early rock riff for nearly six minutes. NOTE: IF YOU PUT A SHORT CATCHY POP SONG AFTER AN 11-AND-A-HALF-MINUTE EPIC, ALWAYS FOLLOW IT UP WITH A GENERIC SIX-MINUTE COVER TUNE TO DESTROY ANY MOMENTUM YOU MAY BE REGAINING. Also, is it just my illegal download or is there radio static running in the background the whole song?
6. Very cool fuzzy synth riff with electronic beat!! Kraftwerk are rolling in their gra
y wheelchairs, around the retirement community in which their children placed them.
7. Underwritten modal dance groover that Mark keeps stopping dead for no clear reason. Example: right after the intro, he exclaims "Turn the radio off!" and the entire song disappears, replaced by a guy playing his bass. Example #2: about one minute in, Mark finds it necessary to shut down all the instruments for a few seconds in order to opine that his boss "has the imagination of a gnat."
8. Growly speedy tough rocker! Would sound great on an album with #2!
9. Catchy, cute bass/keyboard tune with Mark E. duetting with.... himself? That sure sounds like Mark Smith singing in a light, higher-than-usual register as Mark Smith growls like a rum-sotted idiot. Goofy light-hearted ditty!
10. Uptempo generic '60s garage rock, straight outta the last two albums. Not bad though.
11. Dance beat, 3-note bass, and the loudest, fullest and most all-enveloping clean guitar strum you will ever hear.
12. Energetic punky tune whose 'hook' is a synthesized crazy swooping swishy-swashy noise!
Certainly it's a low 8, and one must keep in mind that I don't have the most refined musical taste in the world, but I'll be great and goshdarned if this asinine grab bag of tough rock, cutesy pop, dancey electronics, '60s punk and sloshed fuckery-around doesn't rekindle the faith that I'd started to lose in The Fall over the past couple of years. Imperial Wax Solvent may be disjointed, sloppy and abominably-sequenced, but it's definitely not predictable!
(except about 2 minutes into the Groundhogs cover, when you realize that it's going to be doing that for another four minutes.)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION: Mark E. Smith speaks, shouts, sings and growls - sometimes along with himself, thanks to today's top multi-tracking technology; Dave Spurr basses distorted and thick; Elenor Smith alternates between '60s-toned organs and squoogly noise synthesizers; Keiron Melling drums both punky and dancey; Pete Greenway's 'tasty' guitar 'chops' are 'savored' and 'sampled' both in his 'delicious' lead 'licks' and in the subtle but 'juicy' background plucks, slides and silence he brings to the 'plate' of the less rock-focused tracks (or 'corn on the cob'); and Grant Showbiz's mix makes the band sound raw, live and full of oddball eccentricities. There is no overriding mood to the record aside from 'these are music.'
Aside from what sounds astonishingly like "Remember you tried to destroy me, Steve Albini," the only lyric whose sense I can comprehend is "I'm a 50-year-old man and I like it," which is a hilarious and delightfully atypical sentiment for a rock vocalist to make. Then again, Mark's been a cantankerous wrinkly old bag since he was 30, so I guess it figures that he wouldn't fight the natural aging process as vehemently as, say, Paul McCartney. Did you know that that guy's entire face was ripped off a 23-year-old? It's true! 'Sir Paul' had it surgically removed from a street urchin in 2002 and stapled onto his own head. So now the poor kid is walking around with blood, teeth and cartilage where his face is supposed to be. Goddamn you, Paul McCartney! Goddamn you all to Hell!
And "Ringo Starr"? Yeah, more like "Ringo TSarr," if you ask me the way he acts like he owns the place.
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| Cover 1 |
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| Cover 2 |
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| Cover 3 |
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| Cover 4 |
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| Cover 5 |
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| Cover 6 |
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