Week 21: 14/11/91 - 04/08/92

So the Fall are slap bang in the middle of a purple patch. This week was largely concerned with Code Selfish and surrounding singles but naturally we begin by mopping up from the receiver compilations - various bits and pieces and alternative versions - like a teaser of stuff to come.

There's a Peel session that kicks off with one of their best singles: Free Range. The lyrics are not quite there yet but that evil synth stab is front and centre: It pays to talk to no-one. And then Kimble, which was the lead single on their Peel Session 12"; I'm not a fan, kind of a dub reggae thing, it doesn't really do much for me. Then a couple of tracks which I didn't know so well from the LP.

Then the LP proper. I guess I heard this when I was into the Fall, I certainly recognise some of it. The Birmingham School of Business wins it on the title alone but it's a good tune too, the reliable Free Range with the "Zagreb, 85" intro intact finally. The album then chugs along, keeping up the pace: the sound is 25% bleepy bloopy, 50% pop lyrics and 25% riffs - it's a really good balance and the band can really play this kind of sound well and there's even some of that good melancholy type sound that they're really good at at this point.

Everything Hurtz underlines what a great double header that single was - the electronic-y bits are borderline Madchester but manage to stay on the right side of the border. Just Waiting is a really oddity (just checking wikipedia and yep, it's a cover) but again it's one of those covers that sounds like a Fall song, almost.

So-Called Dangerous is the stand out track, and demonstrates why there is no-one quite like the fall. Scratchy guitars and tight drumming and Mark just making noises over the top - then he just goes off on one: LIKE MOUNTAIN CLIMBING, or skiing in the alps; Think of it - I don't!. At one point he says "It was a bit of...code selfish" thus doing the best thing you can do on a record - having a song which the title is featured but it is not the title track.

Then a couple more tracks, before Crew Filth. It starts out a heavy electronic version of What About It before disappearing into some lo-fi Mark pissing about type nonsense. Its wondrous in the way only the fall can really do.

Then the Free Range single, which I'd pretty much heard through at this point but there's a tighter version of Dangerous here. A couple of throwaways: Noel's Chemical Effluence which is not listed in the Bible so I don't really know where it comes from, and the bonkers Xanadu which came on Ruby Trax. Totally "let's knock this one out quick lads", Mark is far far out of tune. But the whole thing sort of works.

And lastly, Ed's Babe which I would say is perhaps even better than Free Range, though it's more of a grower. The B-Sides make it: Pumpkin Head Xscapes is all electronics weirdness. The Knight, The Devil and Death is clever and Free Ranger is like a Norman Cook remix of Free Range. Brill.