| Reviews |
All Music Guide Review:
Review by Dave Thompson
Room to Live originally appeared in 1982 and remains as essential to the Fall's discography as the previous year's Slates EP. Room to Live was similarly one of the great Fall collections of this era that was too short to be called an album and too long to be an EP or single. Its seven tracks epitomize the "Undilutable Slang Truth!" -- the phrase scrawled across the cover -- which in Mark E. Smith dialect translates as possibly the most archly political and scathing collection of diatribes the Manchester legend spewed forth onto record during what is arguably the group's creative peak. Room to Live marks one of the most inspired periods of the group, the era that produced the masterful Hex Enduction Hour and was in part fueled by the political upheaval in England circa 1982 during the Falklands War (the subject became a bone of contention with many artists, yet few railed so spitefully as the Fall). Mark E. Smith is at his very best lyrically when getting riled up against the middle class, such as on "Hard Life in Country" and the hilarious "Solicitor in Studio." The latter track gathers a chugging momentum until peaking in uncontrollable feedback, and contains some of the most experimental and risky instrumental behavior his supporting cast ever brought to the studio. Room to Live may be a short, sharp stab of chaos, yet it remains undeniably one of the greatest pieces of post-punk genius the group ever recorded. [This edition includes a bonus disc featuring four songs that could simply have been appended to the basic Room to Live remaster, but make a lot more musical sense on a disc of their own. Tumultuously brilliant versions of "Draygo's Guilt," "Joker Hysterical Face," a nearly definitive "Lie Dream of a Casino Soul," and "Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot" were recorded live at the Derby Hall in Bury on April 27, 1982 -- this same show also provided the bonus disc that accompanied the Palace of Swords Reversed CD reissue and, taken together, the two bonus discs offer an exciting glimpse of a nearly hometown audience greeting the conquering heroes.]
Mark Prindle Review:
Room To Live - Kamera 1982.
8 out of 10
STUDIO ALBUM #5 - Another winner! On this one, apparently Mark wanted to get away from the supposed overproduction (or at least over-EFFORT, although I personally don't see it at all) that went into the creation of Hex Enduction Hour by dragging the gang into the studio to throw together some tunes as quickly as possible. To further differentiate this one from those before it, Mark forced certain players to sit out the recordings of certain tracks and kinda had the others go at it without telling them what the songs were supposed to do (or so I read on the Internet somewhere). As a result, a few of these tracks seem disturbingly directionless ("Hard Life In Country" and "Detective Instinct" in particular both shudder along spookily, threatening to go somewhere, but never do). No problem - the songs are still great. They're tighter, less abstract, and more traditionally one-drum-kit-sounding than the Hex tunes, and sort of (in a way) more accessible, I suppose, but no worse for the wear. The poppy scoo "Joker Hysterical Face" and the speedy Mancabilly title track, in fact, rule!!!
The re-release adds both sides of the phenomenal "Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul"/"Fantastic Life" single, but apparently they're available all over the place at this point.
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