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.
No comments:
Post a Comment