Customer Reviews

Reformation Post T.L.C.

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

 

 

Having been a Fall follower since hex enduction hour, i have seen many of the ups and downs of the band played out and on.
In 2007 nothing has changed with that maxim for MES.
Having disposed of the then current lineup of the band mid tour, who were all relatively new members anyway with the exception of guitarist Ben Pritchard who had lasted 6 or so years, he picks up a new band of Los Angelinos and within days and before you know it they are the fall.
They begin recording almost immediatley and this is the fruit of that labour.
Well how does it scrub up?
This is an album for fans only.
If you are interested in finding out about the wonderful and frightening world of MES and the fall don't start here.
For the fans tho, it is amazing that MES has pulled what he has out of it.
I can liken it to going from 'the unutterable' to 'are you are missing winner'.
There are instant fall grooves going on in Fall Sound, Reformation, Systematic Abuse and My door is never although the latter is marred by an uninspired vocal by MES.
White Line Fever features a most melancholy approach to a vocal not seen since Bill is Dead from Extricate, showing a most tender side of MES, obviously the old codger is mellowing [surely not!], pity then that the playing is so sloppy!
Insult Song is very hard going, an uninspired jam along with one of Smith's most embarrasing rants - why even include it?
Das Boot is cut from similar cloth.
Neat moments are found on Coach and Horses and the Usher.
Elena Poulou's vocal on the Wright Stuff is cool and a welcome break from Smith's mostly below par vocals.
Thankfully also her keyboard contibutions maintain a link to the old Fall sound [check out the relentless drive of Fall Sound!!]
If the band sticks around long enough [or they are allowed to!] then the next album will be interesting particularly if Tim Presley [new guitarists] manages to find his feet.
He is credited as co producer with Smith but where are the guitars??
The twin bass line up hopefully will an inspired innovation if it continues to evolve and find it's way also.
All in all it seems a bit rushed and lacking a little in quaulity control.
Production is a little on the low-fi side after the sonic slam of the last 2 studio efforts.
Still there is enough on here to keep me happy til the next one rolls around and enough to make me realise that after 30 years the fall are still right up there.
Bring back Grant Showbiz and get the guitars back in the mix!!
Flying Ed....

As much as I like the Fall, their latest release is quite the disappointment. Filler is the word that comes to mind. After the first four songs (which are quite good, by the way...Reformation TLC being the stand-out), the material takes a deep plunge into mediocrity. Some of the songs are even dreadful (Das Boot, The Wright Stuff and the Insult Song come to mind in this regard). This CD should have been released as an EP. There is some point being made here, but I'm not quite sure what it is, nor do I care. At least you can't accuse MES of not being in character.

I am a Fall fan of more than 1/4-century's standing. I've listened to and seen, on disc and in concert, MES' genius at its best, worst and drunken ugliest. This new album is none of the three. While I admire his supernatural ability to regenerate/reform the Fall so rapidly and frequently over the years, this particular Reformation is not something to get excited about. There has always been filler on Fall albums (faller on Fill albums?) but this time around, tracks like Insult Song (you ain't kidding!), The Wright Stuff and Das Boot are actually boring, not places for the listener to pause and catch his breath. In Reformation and Coach and Horses, I hear traces of what this latest Fall incarnation may grow into, as MES really seems to enjoy having a fresh batch of (American!) youngsters to boss around and intimidate. I look forward to the next major recording from these guys (assuming they're still in the band next year, wouldn't be surprised if they've all been sacked or quit as I type), but won't be listening to R-PTLC very often.

Also, what's with the outright appropriation of Beefheart lyrics...in two different songs yet?

Mark E. Smith again proves his endearing quirkiness with this erratic album, something of a defiant statement after he broke up his last band. Rather murkily recorded and vague, the album meanders over various partially realized themes. The band certainly sounds good, with especially solid bass work. Eleni Poulou's song is certainly a standout, a breath of fresh air. However, Mark's in a sulk and wants everyone to know it, hence the droogish quality of his songs. It's listenable and worthwhile for Fallfans, but don't introduce anyone to the band's work with the CD (unless you want to scare them off).

When last seen, Smith, near mythic hero, had astounded once again with Heads Roll, a masterpiece of New Fall sound. But of course, heads did roll, so after stunning the world with back to back masterpieces, we are once again met with a new band. Call 'em the New New Fall. Call 'em California goofballs, whatever, matters not, because they rock. The sound on 'Reformation' (of the band) Post 'TLC' (presumably the pink slips delivered with a smile to the last lot), is monstrous, monotonous, bottom heavy, and mesmerizing. Smith's voice sounds a bit stronger than on 'Heads', although he continues in his trend to more minimalist lyrics. I imagine by the time he wraps the whole project up, he'll be writing songs with just one word. Or syllable. Something in his grunts and barks tells me he's moving toward a post-indo-european language, like Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, but w/o all the bleedin words. A masterpeice. Again. MES is still god, and the New New Fall are still the mightiest rock n roll band in the world.

After another band implosion, this time on the 2006 American tour that found the musicians that had solidly performed on the last two studio discs "Country on the Click/ The Real New Fall Album" and "Fall Heads Roll" abandon leader Mark E. Smith and his wife keyboardist Elena Poulou in the Arizona desert, the re-formed (one estimate for the 45th time) group gives this their 26th or 27th studio recording a stripped down, brittle, and suitably lean sound akin more to their lesser-heard mid-90s efforts. That is, lots of straightforward (relatively speaking if you know the Fall) guitar and keys and drums arrangements in staccato, chugging, playful, or lurching styles. MES out in front from the first lines of song one ranting again at past members' perfidity. MES picking up with a half-dozen or so decent songs that admittedly cut some of the last two studio disc's flourishes and sonic assaults for a less dramatic, more workmanlike, disciplined, and perhaps more modest approach to the music. It draws less attention to itself here.

This by contrast places more emphasis on MES. His lyrics are actually more comprehensible than they have been for the past four or so discs this decade. His autodidact charm and cutting irony balance with him simply having fun taking the piss out of his listeners, who, if like me, should know better than to expect, as I foolishly do each album, a solid and consistent set of songs. Instead, it's a familiar pattern that the last fifteen years at least has established. Not a rut by any means, but this is the template MES and crew use to work within.

First part of the album solid. American cover version: this time an appropriate, given the tour debacle that led to this band's genesis, "White Line Fever" by Merle Haggard. Accusations of speed and drink were lobbed at MES by his former band mates, and the current band was hired on the spot, more or less, from the opening support act. Two of the current band are from LA group Darker My Love. They recorded this album later last year in LA and England/ It lacks "The Usher" from the earlier British release, but adds four tour videos. A no-nonsense approach makes this a respectable if not astonishing later effort from The Fall. which is these days as MES puts it built on the model of himself as football coach and the players his hired hands who do what they're told.

Where in frustratingly endearing Fall style the trail wanders off is with "Insult Song," which continues the first track's invective but with a looser attention to songcraft. Then, with the ten-minute plus "Das Boot," MES' admiration for Krautrock does not prevent this tune from endlesly postponing its resolution, going on endlessly. I get the joke, but it wears out its welcome well before the marathon's ended. The next two songs also match a Fall template, that of albums weakening in their latter third section. "Outro," logically called, does try to rally the spirit, but this is an album that I predict will sound better live.

Production, and I realize the nature of such on Fall efforts, is compressed. Instruments muffle. The highs and lows, the flourishes and bombast, are lacking in a more consistent balance but one that tends too to smother what needs escape and air to shout about. Still, in concert the nuances should emerge much better, and I anticipate-- for once!-- a live album of these songs will (although it's a long shot given the "guy's track record") enliven these songs to better effect. When, as "Horse & Carriage," you base your alt-history fevered vision on such overlooked admirables as Arthur Machen, you are listening to a band under MES' always entertaining autodidact rants and gnomic chants that deserves attention, for more than the tour antics and the annual line-up shuffles.

Shortly after the previous effort , comes another Fall record....It is not bad at all, especially if you like Mark E Smith's stuff. The funny things is that even if he manages to renew himself and stay rather fresh over the years, it still sounds quite similar to his previous stuff.

Que más se puede decir de un disco de The Fall que no se haya dicho, que más puede decir Mark E. Smith en un disco que ya no lo haya dicho? Una segunda escucha de este disco luego de meses de la primera y en la que me pareció que era más de lo mismo, debo decir que es más de lo mismo, pero diferente. Excelente!