Week 46: 09/12/09 - 30/08/10

And nearing the finish line - And entering into the modern era. The Fall step up with Your Future Our Clutter. Great title, terrible cover - the Bury single is better but something of a throwback.

The album is fantastic though and The Fall are maintaining that steady roll they've been on for the last few albums. The album is all bass, twang and electronics. The initial showcase is driven by Mark shouting the title over a loudhailer thingy. Then there's some of that lo-fi stuff, that blends into a clean version of Bury. There's nine tracks, they're all really solid up tempo rockabilly type groovers. It's just a great cohesive whole. I find it difficult to identify single tracks as the whole package is clear and concise.

There's a cover: Funnel of Love, seemingly originally recorded by Wanda Jackson (and then deprived by her in 2003, if youtube is to believed). Her version is pretty slow, The Fall play it hard and fast with a lot of feedback and electronics. It's a huge standout and one of the strongest Fall songs of the past few weeks.

They end with Weather Report 2 - which starts off pretty normal, then ends up in a messy low fi growl. It's a strange world in which we live - at least the Fall are disturbingly consistent.

Week 45: 20/03/09 - 09/12/09

And the Fall almost enter the Tens/Teens/Tenties? And they drag me along with them. This saw a single release: Slippy Floor - a tour seven inch. The new development in the Fall release schedule is that 45s come out for one off events: tours, record store day etc. These things haven't come out on CD yet so I've ended up buying a few Fall 45s. Not that super rare one but still.

And this is The Fall of the almostt Tenties, The Real New Fall of course. And It Continues. The upswing of the ascending of the Fall. This is a really great little single - Mark and the Band are gelling again and there's a little bit of interplay between them. Slippy Floor (god knows what it's about) could lyrically be from the 80s - all metaphor and growling. Hot Cake continues the grime (Though it's clearly Slippy Floor again), maybe that's the part 2. All drums and electronics. Then they do a live version of Strangetown AT THE CAMDEN CRAWL. Who would've believed that the superest indie festival of all time would continue and host the Fall in 2010. It's a cracking version though, Mark takes about 30 minutes to come on stage and then mumble shouts his way through the song. And then they're off. On another wacky adventure. Adventure-uh.

Week 44: 29/06/08 - 20/03/09

Between June 2008 and March 2009 The Fall released not a sausage. I used the time to catch up with Podcasts and *gasp* realise that I now own every track the Fall have ever officially released. And I can start buying the records for next years project....

Week 43: 09/10/07 - 290/06/08

And now I have expectations. At this point Live is all about how much booze has happened. On record, and in the studio, The Fall are still as mighty as they ever were. This is a good good record too. I can't believe Mark's been to Alton Towers but he's written a song with that title. It's a good un, as is the following Wolf Kidult Man.

50 Year Old Man, and I guess Mark is about 50 at this point - he's proud of it, it would seem. I've Been Duped is a cracker too - all shouty chorus and Eleni, who has a voice for the Fall.

Taurig is an encapsulation of why the band is so good at this point - all electronic bloops and bonkersness. They keep the pace up through out, and Mark can still churn out a song called "Senior Twilight Stock Replace". And of course, exploding chimney, to end. How many bands can release upwards of 28 studio albums, and still sound fresh and interesting on their last. Not Many.

Week 42: 18/01/07 - 09/10/07

And the Fall are Reformed. Reformation Post TLC continues that theme of the Fall being rather good. Reformation/Fall Sound is a serious Krautrock pairing - Mark growing through the tracks. White Line Fever is like a Rockabilly of the Fall past - it's not that great but it's nice to see them trying. And they continue at pace: My Door Is Never open, chugging along right up to Systematic Abuse. It's a really cracking little record.

And then the last Night of the Palais and they're on pretty good form. The Band at least are, Mark is a little three sheets to the wind and they suffer a little for this. They do Hungry Freaks which is pretty good. And My Door is Never - Mark's almost asleep at this point.

The rest of the gig chugs along until a super super drunk White Lightning, reaching the point of barely coherent now. They end with a cracking 9 minute version of Blindness - a great ending to the show. Then some oik gets on stage and moans that they shouldn't have left the stage, since it's the last night of the Hammersmith Palais! The cheek!. They come back on and do Reformation and it's great. Mark takes the piss and they're off again.

The Reformation single is as good as the album, all kraut guitars and remixes. Great.

Week 41: 29/04/06 - 18/01/07

Why they released I Can Hear The Grass Grow as a single is beyond me. It's okay, just not that great. There's a slow version. It's slower than the fast version. And there's a demo of Bo Doodak, which is like the album track but not quite as polished. Mark love's that "Modernity, Modernity' line a bit too much for my liking.

BUT. But. But. They cover Higgle-dy Piggle-dy. From that Monks tribute album. It's incredible - The Fall really could do the Monks like no other (not that anyone else tried to be honest). WAY DOWN.

The band don't quite get it, but Mark mumbles his way through the whole thing and it reminds me why the Fall are so necessary and so much a key part of my life. I love the Fall.

Week 40: 08/08/05 - 29/04/06

And to kick off Week 40 - that most improbably of covers: I Can Hear The Grass Grow. Wasn't this the first song played on Radio 1 or something? Anyway - the Fall do it straight up. As they are want to do.

And then Fall Heads Roll. There's something quite pleasurable about this version of The Fall - it's almost twee and Mark's in good form. There's the usual Fall ranty shouty stuff. And then Midnight In Aspen, which makes me fall in love with The Fall all over again. An beautiful instrumental - almost post rock; and then Mark mutters over the top in the way only he can. It's so beautiful that the memory of the Taxi track from the previous week is at once washed away.

There's even a reprise (the only thing better than the word "Reprise" is the phrase "Dub Version"). Blindness gets a studio recording and it's all rather good, chunky guitars and tight drumming. Clasp Hands has lost it's Classical throwback bit and is better for it. And then the album ends with Trust In Me: a weirdo one with (wait for it) no Mark. Just some rando from the band singing over it - it's sounds like high-rent indie nonsense though.

Then, one I missed, Live in New York. They kick off with Horror In Clay - it's a great intro. Halfway through the band come in and kick off a rawkus Boxoctosis but muck it all up by running into what sounds like Engineering problems.

When it gets going properly it's proper. One of their best intro songs - the guitars are hard again, and then Mark starts signing. And the thing about late period Fall gigs you rate the quality of the performance, basically in terms of how drunk Mark is. Here he is not that drunk and so the gig is pretty good. They kick right into Contraflow and it's the best they've been in years, everything gelling together really nicely. Middle Mass (!) of all things is incredible, totally revitalised and as interesting as it ever was. THEY DO TELEPHONE THING. And it's great, full on wah-wah tastic. The usual bunch of tunes from the live sets: Damo, Pharmacist, Hexagon, Dr. Buck etc. And the shows over. It's a winner.

Week 39: 17/11/04 - 08/08/05

This blog has seen some fairly significant neglect over the last month or so. I have a legitimate apartment moving excuse but despite the ups and downs, The Fall project has kept going.

So Week 39, and the releases are drying up a little now - only one single in this period: Rude (All the Time). Four tracks, and some of them have cropped up elsewhere.

Distilled Mug Art is one of those rambly jangly Smith affairs. Great title, good ranting but, as usual, god knows what it's all about. I Wake Up In The City is as good as it ever was - all lo-fi fuzz and shouty Mark. And then 5 minutes with a title far too rude to reproduce here. Basically a drunken conversation about a Taxi. This is probably the modern equivalent of WMC Blob 59 or something - far less interesting and sophisticated but as lo-fi. My Ex Classmate's Kids is the same music as Wake Up In The City but with different lyrics. It's as good. As Mark did say: Change is as good as a Rest.