Customer Reviews

Early Fall, 1977-1979

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
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This LP was one of my favourites when I was 17 and a college student. Nowadays, I have to say that THE FALL still hold their appeal to me and always will! This excellent and essential(to any Fall fan young or old) compendium features their first four single releases and their b-sides. Also you get LAST ORDERS and STEPPING OUT which featured on a rare ten-inch live compilation called SHORT CIRCUIT LINE AT THE ELECTRIC CIRCUS(this also featured The Drones, Joy Division and John Cooper Clarke amongst others, as well as yours truly). Two little-heard, bouncy, catchy punky numbers with Mark E. Smith's unmistakable vocals, where every stanza seems to be punctuated with -ah! The opening track, REPETITION is a spoof of the chart music of 1978, including punk acts in particular!('You don't dig repetition-ah!'), illustrating it sounded the same!(in retrospect, it's better than the rap rubbish that's about today in my opinion) BINGO MASTER'S BREAKOUT is a mentally amusing tale of a seaside bingo caller who loses it, a song Mark E. Smith wrote while on holiday with his parents in Scarborough, apparently! PSYCHO MAFIA is one to play loud, VARIOUS TIMES is an HG Wells time machine-style tale with a grim vision of the future(yes, he was right, the beer does taste weak in the UK!). IT'S THE NEW THING is a parody of fellow Manchester rivals The Buzzcocks and their commercialised fashion fad-conscious hits. And there's a whole lot more besides...ENJOY! The Fall will continue to rock in their own weird way!

The music here is stupendous. But it's all available now on the 2004 "expanded reissues" of "Live at the Witch Trials" and "Dragnet", in superior fidelity.

A Terrific album containing some of Mark E Smiths best songs. Best to get it know before it goes out of print again. Brilliant, unheard music indeed.

Sorry, i'm french and my english is very limited. I just can say that this album is a pearl; yes, a pearl, really.

Much of this album sounds like the work of kids. Especially the two [out-of-date] keyboards on Madness in my Area. The sound here brilliantly recalls pre-60s, nay pre-analogue, recording--the songs are jumpy(Psycho Mafia) or edgy (cf. "Various Times"--a chilling tune about the dangers of apathy). Elsewhere, Rowche Rumble sounds like a giant sized carnival ride-like music making machine--with very relevant lyrics about pharmaceutical companies medicating the bored. And of course, there's Repetition, the band's blueprint for it's early sound. The great thing about the Fall is they're funny and angry at the same time.

Energy and ideas to burn. Those who have enjoyed the brilliant debut "Live at the Witch Trials" also need to hear this material. It's darned well about time this was in print again. Underheard, brilliant music.