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All Music Guide Review:
Review by John Bush
After a winning streak that stretched clear through the last half of the '90s, Are You Are Missing Winner represents a rare misstep for the mighty Fall. Mark E. Smith sounds curiously lackluster on this ten-track set; the accompaniment, usually unhinged, is much more pedestrian than on late masterpieces like The Marshall Suite and The Unutterable. The real problem, however, is the production and engineering; with a few shining exceptions, the sound is soft and muddy, whereas a great Fall LP continually pushes the red line. One of the bare few highlights is "My Ex-Classmates' Kids," with Smith summoning some much-needed venom and the band sounding a bit more inspired. (It comes complete with a hilarious aside from Smith at the end: "Up your nose! Aftershave! Like little twigs! Twigs.") A promising cover of the obscure Motown nugget "Gotta See Jane" (originally by R. Dean Taylor) turns out to be a back-and-forth rockabilly snorefest, and the "avant" (or just difficult) piece "Ibis-Afro Man" is pretty difficult to take as well -- understandably, it all breaks down when Smith begins dueting with what sounds like an enraged monkey, then starts back up again with five minutes of a completely different song, recorded live. Frustrating, bizarre, confusing (in a bad way), and pasted together with the same haphazardness of the innumerable cut-rate albums that constantly aggravate Fall collectors and fans.
Mark Prindle Review:
Are You Are Missing Winner - Cog Sinister 2001.
7 out of 10
STUDIO ALBUM #22 - Guitar stereo separation-ah! Screwy mixing of crap-ah! 60sish-ah! Raw distorted guitar tones -- but grounded in cleanliness-ah! (Unlike Cerebral-ah!). Extremely repetitive-ah. But ten actual SONGS; no self-indulgence-ah! A whole new band-ah! Lots of simple garage rock like Cerebral or Marshall Suite-ah! Too repetitious and too few creative riffs to be a 9. But great. GReAT for FALL fans. MANCABILLY returns - lots of Brix-style simple guitar lines -- middle speaker is clean, left plays light distorted solos, right plays fuzz noise. TWO LONGS SONGS -- "Ibis-Afro Man" - 9 and a half minutes of creepy, odd upgoing bass thump-thump-thumps halfway through FADE-OUT comes back at triple-speed. "Reprise: Jane-Prof Mick-Ey Bastardo" 7 minutes fantastic jazzy drums and groovy bass line - MARK SMITH SPANISH ACCENT, tremeloey guitar great, keeps stopping completely, then a different verion pops in! FFor any fan of Pebbles or Nuggets compilations. NO ARTY SHIT. Just fucked up garage rock. I love The Fall -- They "kick the can." He replaced his entire band YET AGAIN. He is such a reliable man. Mark E. Smith has NEVER made a bad Fall album (his bad album was solo). The Fall should live forever. Production - things fuck around. Things are fucked up. Guitars abound - guitar lines are simple, but mix includes squeaks, squeals, demo versions in left speaker, etc. Nothing new, all borrowed and used, but catchy and well wroth owning. I leave "wroth" misspelled for art's sake.
I finally visited the World Trade Center site tonight. It is November 30th, 2001. The site is a mess of mangled metal, crushed concrete and way too much empty space, as I just posted on Music Babble. FIRST IMPRESSION: sickening but interesting. So wrong. So broken. SECOND IMPRESSION: look at the surrounding buildings - look at how tall they seem. Think about how tall WTC was and how people were jumping out of windows. How that must have felt. THIRD IMPRESSION: Gawkers taking pictures. Hating them but knowing I am one of them. Hating me. Stop peering through holes in barriers. I hate you. FOURTH IMPRESSION: Wall of letters from left-behinds to dead. Too much pain. I cried and cried and cried and cried. "You were the best son ever. Love, Mommy and Daddy." Too much. These people weren't soldiers. They were people just like me. They didn't deserve this. I did. FIFTH IMPRESSION: I'm stupid. Can't find subway. SIXTH IMPRESSION: Get drunk at restaurant because I deserved to die and they deserved to live. SEVENTH IMPRESSION: Came home, had sex, somehow everything is okay now. Maybe you should try OCD. Or maybe I should try real pain. I have to wear a tie to work starting Monday. My dog is kicking something wrong. Sorry this review isn't funny. I'm still drinked. Really good ablum for people who love garage rock from the 60s. BUY IT AND BUY EVERY OTHER FALL ALBUM ASIDE FROM INFERIOR PRODUCT ON RECEIVER RECORDS. THE FALL ARE THE MOST CONSISTENT BAND OF ALL TIME!
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