Customer Reviews

I Am Kurious Oranj

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

 

 

Performed in concert with avant-guarde ballet artist Michael Clarke, this CD was very ahead of it's time. Mark E. Smith gives one of his best performances of his life giving the audience great music, lyrics that make you think and some great political and historic references. Listen to it a few times, and you can't stop...

Wow, this record is worth the price of admission just for the opening track "New Big Prinz" alone. A Killer reworking of their already perfect track "Hip Priest". The record may lag a bit in the middle but you'll forget about that after hearing "Jerusalem", "Kurious Oranj", "wrong Place, Right Time", and "Van PLague". And if "Cab it Up!" doesn't want to make you jump up and down then stop looking up FAll records and get your sorry hide back to the Justin Timberlake section.

Like most Fall albums, this one contains filler, but the strong material is lethal. From the steamroller opening track "New Big Prinz" to the surprisingly pretty instrumental "Overture From 'I am Curious, Orange'" amusingly pockmarked by Brix' ejaculations, to the disturbing "Jerusalem" to the vintage Fall "Wrong Place, Right Time" to the Fall's inimitable take on the HIV epidemic "Van Plague?" ("father takes it in his stride, says 'back in the closet, son'") this album loads the Fall canon with classic after classic. If you are forced to put together a 20 track "best of" retrospective on the Fall, at least two tracks will come from here.

The first time I'd ever heard The Fall I had walked into a record store and Kurious Oranj was playing and I thought to myself...wow... that's a unique sound. About five or six songs into the cd Cab It Up came on and the song was so friggen catchy that I walked up to the counter and bought it right out of the player. I think I pretty much played it every day after that for about three months even after buying 5-6 other Fall cd's in the meantime. With Fall fans being a fickle bunch K.O. is often looked at as one of the least liked releases. The music is so good that it's hard not to wonder if it has something to do with it being the soundtrack to a Michael Clark "gay" ballet which is really a shame because this is phenomenal cd. Another reason of course is the obvious influence of Brix Smith which is another aspect of Fall history that the fickle fans resent for some ridiculous reason. The opening and closing tracks are heavier remake versions of the Fall Hex classic Hip Priest and every song inbetween is very good to very great. Not a popular statement to make but this could be the best Fall record of them all.

For the uninitiated the first Fall albums (and there were quite a few!) could be verey very challenging and difficult to listen to. This album was a turning ponit. The melodies are straightforward and the production is clean. Ok you have ME Smith's voice that is unmistakeably his but otherwise the playing is top-notch.Other Fall records have not aged this well and this remains a timeless classic.

The soundtrack to the title ballet that the Fall were involved with, 'I am Kurious Oranj' was an upward swing after the disappointment of 'The Frenz Experiment.' Though there is a share of weak tracks, there are still plenty of great moments and some songs remain some of The Fall's best of the Brix-era: "Wrong Place, Right Time," "Big New Prinz" and the "The Overture" instrumental.

This album is very experimental and it's hard to define the sound. Two songs, New Big Prinz and Kurious Oranj, are classic post-punk and my personal favorites. The rest are avant-garde, featuring some instrumentals and strange arrangements. If you got rid of the instrumentals it would be better, but overall it's a very good effort by the Fall.