Customer Reviews

Fall Heads Roll

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Unlike with most of the Fall's releases over the past five years or so, I did not approach "Fall Heads Roll" with nearly as much skepticism as I did those other recent records. I believe that it was off their website or one linked to it that I downloaded some 2004 Peel Sessions of "blindness," "clasp hands," and "what about us." These were truly excellent recordings, with an intensity that reminded me much of "Hex Enduction Hour."

Their previous full-length "the real new fall lp" is a great album in its own right, and one that can really grow on you, but I just flatly disagree with those reviewers who feel it necessary to cast "fall heads roll" as a somewhat lesser version of it. On the contrary, this record has an intensity that the previous one too often lacks (even though it remains quite engaging). Moreover, the "softer" moments on "fall heads roll" (Midnight Aspen / Reprise) don't at all grate on the rest of the material (which was the major failure of otherwise good early 90s records such as "Extricate," ect), but they instead merge much more organically with their surroundings. One could tell from the last full-length that the Fall had regained much of the sharpness/wit that characterized early classics like "Room to Live" (i love those 'i hate the country' songs), and "fall heads roll" delivers in this area even more satisfyingly.

Mark E. Smith's new wife and keyboardist Eleni plays a significant role throughout the record, and it's great to hear the band gel around her and M. E. Smith. As much as some may hate the parallel, this new(ish) lineup could very well return the band to the creative and catchy heights they achieved in the best of the Brix period. One or two more successive albums like this and there will be little disagreement with such an observation. As it stands now, I'm not quite ready to uncross my fingers. As long as there's not another divorce in the near future (which would very likely thrust Smith into further self-conscious emotional griping that diluted albums like "Extricate"), I will do my best to remain optimistic.
Even in such a case, "Fall Heads Roll" will not become stale anytime soon. Truly a modern classic and, as the previous reviewer suggests, I will not accept any reaction less that enthusiastic from those friends who remain casual spectators into the world of the Fall. And in this case, I don't think I even need to worry about that.

The Fall just released one of the best albums of their careers. Fall Heads Roll comes through on every level. The Fall is a truly unique band and incredible on so many fronts, but the pleasures inherent in The Fall are often subtle and apparent after repeated listenings. The new album is immediately breathtaking with humor, vitriol, noise, all benefited by clear punchy production. Every moment is genius and control. Finally here is a Fall disc that you can pass onto those friends who you have been trying to convert for years.

Like some insane jakey escaped from a James Kelman novel MES mumbles his way in near incoherence thru this latest recording. Once again the Smith verbiage is "thrown like a carcass into the whirring propeller" that is the music of the Fall, and once again dark magic is the result. Smith's rant has been reduced to a mumble as he apparently converges with his own mythology. Unlike a Keith Richards, Smith would never stoop to minstrilize himself with drunken affectation, but the drink has always been there. It was certainly there back in 1983 when my interview with him for a Philly zine quickly morphed into a 3 hour afternoon drinking session at a local Irish pub.
He was brilliant then and he remains brilliant now. Over 3 decades, no band to have emerged from the original 77 punk scene can come close to rivaling the Fall in terms of the shear quantity of good music produced. The new band are incredibly hot, more obviously so here than on "Click". Like Captain Beefheart with his voice ravaged by MS on his final recording "Ice Cream for Crow", Smith is so far ahead of his contemporaries that he will be more interesting than them until the moment he keels over and can't even manage a mumble any more. The worst song The Fall ever recorded is of more substance than the best song that a "Franz Ferdinand" could ever imagine.

Another Fall record...I do not know...It is actually not so bad. The problem is that despite the incredible musical diversity ME Smith has displayed over the years it does allways sound the same, with some exceptions. It is still very solid and there are as allways a few pearls included that will make any fan happy. But in a sense it is a very very commercial approach in the sense that it appeals to a very very well established fan-base.

As ever, the reviews are varied. What I will say is that, for the first time since about 1990 (Extricate, if you must know!), I have found a Fall album that demands to be listened to time and again.
I fell out with them mid 90's but was re-ignited by a BBC4 documentary on said band. And how glad I am!
Are Smith's musings those of genius or borderline alcoholic, speed freak? No matter, this cd is stamped with Fall class.
The opening track (Ride Away) is awkward (to say the least) but, over the years, Smith has been more demanding of his listeners. It sounds almost Reggae (to me).
From then on, it is The Fall at their best. They delve into past victories (albeit with a cool, new edge). Fall know-alls will spot references to many old favourites too numerous to mention.
Highlights are the rasping bass of Blindness, the sweet melody of Aspen, Youwanner for the utter Fallness of it and Trust In Me just for sounding like Bend Sinister.
For those of you currently "out" of The Fall, this may well get you back on track. Enjoy!

In a few places this works as flashy garage-rock pop with a psychedelic bent - "Pacifying Joint" and "What About Us" are highlights. Mostly this just lays there flat. The great groove "Blindness" gets an idiosynchratic treatment, light on guitar, that's quite infgerior to its live sound.

Like the Real New Fall LP FHR is a difficult record to rate. At times it seems brilliant and at other times you find yourself questioning why they even bothered to put certain songs on the record because they're pretty lackluster. The opening cut Ride Away is one that you'll either love or hate.... me I'm in the former camp... I think it's the best and most creative song on the disc by far. Pacifying Joint and What About us are two back to back kick ass rockers but have the exact same exact chord progression so after a while they wear quite thin on the ear. Blindness is another heavy great tune with bits snatched from a few older Fall tunes. There are also couple of other good songs on the record but then there also seems to be 3-4 songs that sound like nothing but filler which is a bit odd because the cd is about 70 minutes long. I'm giving the FHR 4 stars for one reason... It's because despite it's flaws it's still better than 99% of the crap that gets released these days, however, by Fall standards it's somewhat weak. If you thing the Real New Fall LP was a great record then you'll love this but if you prefer stuff like Infotainment Scan, Shiftwork or older classics like Hex or Grotesque then FHR will probably be a bit of a letdown. Still worth picking up though because some of the songs are indeed very good listens.

I've been a fan of this group for over 25 years. In fact, The Fall is my favorite group of all time. And I'll always say that, even in spite of the ho-hum quality of their oddly pedestrian and enervating newest effort. FHR just doesn't excite me at all. MES and the crew don't sound much excited as well. I can't even claim to have heard much of anything on here that is innovative, edgy, or thrilling in any of the tracks. Quite a kick in the pants given that The Fall very rarely fail to incite, excite, or at the very least, engage. Their Move cover doesn't add any fresh perspective to that great chestnut, "I Can Hear The Grass Grow." But that's a familiar problem with covers anyway. Far worse, the album's net effect is one where the tracks seem to coalesce into little more than a brooding background noise; a case of some tracks being merely more "alright" than others. Nothing much is really distinctive or memorable. I've heard fellow fans rave about the thing, but I'm left scratching my head in bewilderment as to exactly why. FHR reminds me of something like a Fall-"lite" comfort food: big on approximation of a distinctive Fall flavor, but with an unpleasant aftertaste of chemical hocus pocus that is simply rich in empty calories. The latest slice of strife from this venerable organization seems to be woefully short on weird and wiggy insight into life's rich pageant, and more about unfocused, foot wagging restlessness. MES appears to be moving through the work in a kind of listless somnabulistic shuffle: an aimless fugue of merely going through the motions, and with a plodding, overly smooth indy-rock sensibility; a largely uninspired cakewalk through an already well carved out ( and utterly predictable) indy-rock territory. I've not been a stranger to Fall music not impressing me initally only to have me crazed about it in subsequent listens. That was the story for much of the early 90's Fall. I've played FHR about six times in the several months I've owned it, and it all still feels like a lump of undigested pasta in my gut. I may feel kinder towards it in time, but so far being moved to only give it six plays in three months doesn't bode well for a change of heart epiphany coming upon me like a lightning bolt.
"Country On The Click/The New Real Fall Album," their previous effort, was terrific: a compendium of rich and grating surprises. this one ain't like that. I'm sorry to say. And I take absolutely no pleasure in saying it. Yes, I'm a "look Back Bore" and proud of it. MES has seemingly disparaged old friends of The Fall. He appears to want you young 'uns to focus on the contemporary Fall ouevre and forget about the past. It's understandable that he wants to remain relevent and garner new and younger audiences. But listen kid, if you're new to this band seek out the older stuff first. You'll see why they were - and are - the greatest avant post-punk band there is. No, I won't say that his best work is behind him, I won't go that far, but it is undeniably certain that the MES of the late 70's and 80's created THE ouevre that made The Fall legendary. This release shouldn't be your first taste of the group. If it is and you love it, great - but you won't have much of a clue why THe Fall came to be the gold standard for many of us older and discerning fans. Or, as the Late John Peel said in effect: The standard other groups are measured against.

The Fall will never, ever die. Only the Rolling Stones have persisted longer, and they still have more than one original member in their line-up. The Fall are also an anomaly. The only constant member of the band is the Mark E. Smith, who only handles lead vocals, which he doesn't sing so much as bark through an indecipherable Mancunian accent. Still, somehow, the band's sound doesn't vary greatly from record to record. The essential Fall song formula: find a killer riff, repeat ad nauseam, Smith shouts some oblique political commentary, maybe a (soon to be ex) wife on keyboards adds some backing vocals. Sounds like it would get old, but somehow it never does. Heads Roll differs slightly, in that it has some quieter moments which evoke the slower songs of latter day Sonic Youth. Pretty, even. Still, it contains some rockin' tunes, Blindness being my personal favorite, with a fuzzy bass line that repeats itself for seven minutes, but still leaves you wanting more. Heads Roll was criticized for not being as good as last years Real New Fall LP, and while it's not as consistently good, I think it gets better each time you listen.

Been trying to think recently of albums or songs I like to play at the very highest registers. Right out of the box I'd have to say The Annoying Song on Independent Worm Saloon although nearly everything on that monster album by the Surfers gets the job done. This list is I realise potentially endless. One time I actually owned two copies of The Velvet Underground's Another View, the one with two versions of Hey Mr. Rain on it, and I used to blast both of these songs out at the same time on two different Toshibas I had rigged up--bliss on several levels that was. Ever hear the stunning quarter hour version of Hey Mr. Rain on the Velvet's 1993 Live MCMXCIII? Boggle up your eardrums entirely that one will. Yo La Tengo's ten minute Spec Bebop now that I think of it does something similar, as do the absurdly sublime electric bagpipes Bon Scott himself plays on AC/DC's It's A Long Way To The Top. Rory Gallagher's Irish Tour is a bleeding barnstorm too when turned way up--his band is unbelievably solid and that dude on keyboards, Lou Martin, boy is he a stupendously funky piece of work. Still though the record is all about Rory's live guitar and when you've got your gear ramped up to eleven the Stratocaster sounds like it's coming straight out of Heaven. And then finally there's this album by The Fall--to characterise it as colossal plugged-in chunks of amplitude is to understate matters considerably. The first song, Ride Away, is a percussive and wonky toe tapper and then from Pacifying Joint on down you're in Smiffy and the boys' boom boom room. Can you honestly believe how farking good Blindness sounds? And what about What About Us? Even the acoustic Early Days of Channel Fuhrer benefits enormously from a leg up in the audio knob department. Volume rocks to my way of thinking.