Week 27: 16/03/96 - 05/12/96

I seemed to have missed this one somehow and what a one to miss. The Light User Syndrome. I never bought this one at the time, I don't remember it getting favourable reviews. And to be fair it's largely forgettable - quite heavy on decent but non magical Fall tracks. And a couple of heavy hitters too: Vulture and He Pep! are big tracks which were live favourites. Mark looks like Eddie Marsden on the cover though. There's a non Mark vocal on Stay Away which provides some respite but it just sounds weird. The Chisilers was good but much more appealing as a single than an album track. The problem with the album is that it sounds like the Fall on auto pilot.

Then The Fall! Live! At The Astoria! 26th June 1996. It's okay. A little wayward in places - they do a cracking version of LA with one of the band shouting over Brix's bits. And Mr. Pharmacist is now becoming a staple of the live sets, and with good reason.

Then The Fall! Live! At Various Festivals! Truly if you've heard one forgettable concert, you really have heard them all.

Then A Peel Session. I remember hearing this one, but not the music really. It sounds 200 times better than the versions on the things above which is sort of depressing. Brix totally channels mid 90s indie on Spinetrack, to a frightening degree. The reason I remember it: They do a Captain Beefheart cover. Beatle Bones of course. Mark does the intro bit in his own way and I thought that would be it but they do the whole thing. It's okay. Not nearly as good as their Monks covers but you can't win them all.

Week 26: 26/06/95 - 16/03/96

Halfway. Literally Halfway through The Fall's career and in my real life, I was heading up to Sheffield to start University. This week coincided with the Fourth of July here, so I haven't really listened to much of the playlist but I got a good measure of the Fall in this period (I will listen to all the tracks at least three times this week I promise).

Three albums that balloon the playlist up to a mighty five hours. The Album is Cerebral Caustic which is kind of okay, a little bit the Fall on autopilot. The Brix novelty has worn off a little. There feels like there are tracks here (Rainmaster I'm looking at you) that should have been left on the cutting room floor. And a lot of the tracks that are good, are better elsewhere, whether that be live or in session. They do Life Just Bounces again, but it's not nearly as good as the original or that live version with the thing about Pipes. Bonkers in Phoenix is meant to be like being at Glastonbury. Well it is utter shit and a waste of time so maybe he's right. Ha Ha. It's not a bad record but there's just not enough oomph to it.

Thankfully the CD has a bunch of "Rough Mixes" of the tracks - so you get to hear them all twice, albeit some slightly differently. No improvement.

And then on to the 27 Points. I bought this at the time on two cassettes - I remember it being pretty cheap for a double album, I don't think I listened to it much but it's actually aged pretty well.  There's a spread of tracks, and the quality is generally pretty high. A cracking version of Return here, a decent stab at Ladybird Green Grass.

And one of the best moments of the Fall: Idiot Joy Showland, played brilliantly but Mark's not happy so he stops the band and pulls them off stage for 5 minutes. "RIGHT REX - YOU BETTER GET THIS SORTED". He then plays a tape of 10 points that he hates about a person. All of these will come back to you and confirm you as a damn pest. They don't come back on and finish Showland.

A fiery version of Mr Pharmacist, Bill Is Dead again?. And then it's gone, to be added to the list of "Above Average" live albums. All of the live stuff is kind of rolling into a single mass at this point, and so I breeze through The Idiot Joy Show without missing a beat.

The Peel session was awful: He Pep!, Oleano, Chilinist, The City Never Sleeps. The Fall safely on autopilot here. The latter is weird, I don't know who the vocalist is but they've been studying that book on mid-90s indie female vocals pretty hard. More of those Receiver things round this out and make me think that that was the most uneventful five hours of the Fall so far. Halfway though.

Week 25: 05/10/94 - 26/06/95

A short one and this week got lost in the fourth of July build up. The christmas Peel session though - another version of Glam Racket! Another!. Then Jingle Bell Rock, and a weirdly good version of Hark The Herald Angels Sing. And then Numb at the Lodge which is all about Prozac it would seem. It's good in a Brix kind of way.

And then a whole bunch of live stuff - mainly from "In The City" which proved the hardest CD to source so far, being largely unavailable. I paid market price.

They kick off with a lengthy intro tape, and into the Joke, which is now a live staple track. They do Bill is Dead halfway through the set, which is both a) an odd one to revive and b) an odd one to play live anyway. They close with Life Just Bounces which is a great track and I'm happy to see it persist. The last track on this weeks playlist is an intro tape from The Roadhouse - it's the same track as In The City. Pah!

Week 24: 14/01/94 - 15/10/94

I was right into The Fall in '94. It's all coming back now - I even bought these records when they came out.

This week starts with a good Peel Session: M5, the awful Behind The Counter, Reckoning and the finally recorded Hey! Student!

And then Middle Class Revolt which was something of a nothing record. It's all part of the Fall story though, listening to these records is something like a long hike (as they call 'walks' in the US), it's never bad and sometimes you realise that it's not great but it's always interesting.

MCR is interesting, 15 Ways is an odd one, I'm not sure what Mark's trying to tell us here. The Reckoning is the gem, a song in Edinburgh Man vein - melancholy abounds. The tracks are good, electronic. Something like Surmount All Obstacles is great, all bloopy bleep with Mark hollering over the top. It's all very bland. You're Not Up To Much is the track of the album, chanting and misery combined into a glorious whole. Symbol of Mordgan is the weirdo track, Craig Scanlon ringing John Peel to talk about the football. With a delicious reveal: it was him! all along on Australians in Europe, talking to the preacher!

They sure as hell save the best till last: as out of nowhere comes the third Monks cover, and they do Shut Up!. It's utterly glorious, the Fall pulled through the garage.

The single tracks (and infinite remixes) are tedious: the world does not need a shitty house remix of Middle Class revolt that goes on for 7 minutes. And it sure as hell doesn't need another one. And it definitely doesn't need a Surmount All Obstacles remix. Pah. Those Castenskiold sleeves though. Myself and my good friend Malcolm spent a summer afternoon painting the 15 ways one onto my bedroom wall. When my parents painted over it when I moved out, my Dad painted over the heads and then took a picture of it.

Week 23: 25/04/93 - 14/01/94

It's all slowing down a little now. As we approach the mid 90s the Peel stranglehold and The Fall do a session for the Mark Goodier show: Mark Goodier, Mark Goodier, Mark Goodier.....On Radio 1. And it's super tight: the best version of Glam Racket so far, A non-annoying War, 15 Ways and a furious Past Gone Mad.

And then a whole bunch of weirdo live tracks: Deadbeat Descendant and other old songs (shift work?, Big New Prinz?) the Fall are dredging the back catalogue or someone is on their behalf. This is now the era of Mark being barely coherent when singing live. It's not like he's given up, but more that he's starting to drink too much.

The Behind The Counter was also one of the signs of those interminable, never ending remixes. Whoever realised that by releasing three different formats you gained chart positions should be shot. So many bad remixes from this.

And then, via Oxymoron, the first Glam Racket with Brix! and her rap part. The bible considers the return of Brix to be the kick in the arse that The Fall needed and I'm not one to disagree - she's on fine form on this, all yank snarl. And giving space to a vocalist who isn't Mark seems to ignite the band, maybe they relish the lack of fear.

That would have been the end, if it wasn't for a mistake on my part. I labelled the Nottingham '92 concert as being released in 2014.  To be honest it's largely forgettable, though being of a relatively high standard audio wise. They do And Therein which is, I guess the curveball. The War Against Intelligence never sounded better to be fair though.

Week 22: 04/08/92 - 25/04/93

This is the brass ring. Volume was always a weird little operation - all the tracks were unique to the comps and the book was pretty plush for the price. I had a Prolapse track on the one I owned and they were gurning around in the interview - the whole operation surely can't have made any money? Anyway Arid Al's Dream is on there and it's good.

I remember this Fall session being of the time that I sat by John Peel with my finger on the pause button to record my favourite bits. It's pretty good - Ladybird being a harbinger of things to come. Strychinne (learnt especially for John's Birthday) is a good 'un, Service is largely forgettable and Paranoia Man is a great title and good tune.

And that brings us to the Infotainment Scan. This was the first Fall album I bought that came out when I was into the Fall. I remember thinking it was okay at the time but not nearly a patch on their earlier efforts. The bible rates it highly, and listening to it now, and a few times I can see why - the band are in good form and Mark's not mucking about too much and the things he's singing about have a real weight to them. At the time the music sounded like cheesy crap to me, but in context it all really works together and it actually sounds quite forward thinking in the cold light of day.

And there's a whole bunch of really good tracks: Ladybird sounds vibrant. Lost In Music is an unlikely Fall cover but something about it really works. Glam Racket is onomatopoeia - and has some of Mark's best lines: "Stop eating all that chocolate, eat salad instead - in fact you are a half wit." And then the side ball of I'm Going to Spain (though I've never heard the original) - it's quite beautiful through the Fall Filter. The pace is kept up all the way through, including a fairly furious Past Gone Mad with all the bleep bloopy stuff you wanted. The weird track comes out at the end - it's all lo-fi blah blah but it kind of reminds me of Room 2 Live.

And then Why Are People Grudgeful which I like but I don't much care for. Many remixes of course, being the mid-90s. There's a bass heavy version of Glam Racket and then for no real reason 3 different version of Lost In Music. With each one "Le Money is sur Le Table" becomes more and more sinister. But it's good to see the Fall keeping the pace up and continuing to evolve.

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.