Review The Fall - the genius of Mark E Smith

[michaellevenson]

What can you say about The Fall!? Thirty studio albums of weird brilliance that defy description. You either love them, can't understand them, or if you're REALLY REALLY unlucky not heard of them.
Smith is the only ever present member, the usual form is that he gets a band around him, records a few albums, falls out with them and fires them, and gets a new band. But as Smith says, " if it's me on vocals and your granny on bongos, then it's The Fall"
The songs are so eclectic in subject matter that you can't really categorize them . The lyrics are bizarre too, " No Bulbs" is a favorite of mine, about a dark dingy flat.
" No belts in this flat,
Former tenant anti corporal punish
Light has just gone out
Bulb has just gone out
No belts in this flat
No bulbs in this flat
When you wake your home is a trash mound
So dark its like St Petersburg"

 

[michaellevenson]

 

[michaellevenson]

This is a live performance of High Tension Line, a song giving Smith reason to go loopy as its about mental disorder caused by living close to high tension pylons.

 

[TheSowIsMine]

Great band.
The first time I heard them, was in The Silence of the Lambs.

 

[michaellevenson]

Love this, got to be one of their most bizarre tracks. I believe the noise interference from a television programme about astronomy accidentally got on the recording, but Smith liked it, and kept it in.