The Fall
Reformation! Post-TLCM
review by Jennifer Tittle
The Fall’s new nearly-annual studio album Reformation! Post-TLC (according to Mark E. Smith, the album title is a response to Manchester groups reforming out of financial destitution ) incorporates Smith’s drawling, caustic vocals and innate syllabic sensibility with intense bass (this line-up includes two bass players, new members Rob Barbato of Darker My Love and Dave Spurr of Motherjohn) and disparate keyboard from Elena Poulou. During last year’s American tour, Manchester members Ben Pritchard, Steve Trafford, and Spencer Birtwistle left the Fall (remaining were, of course, Smith and his wife/keyboardist Poulou), and the current formation was quickly assembled. The album includes “Scenario”, in which Smith expresses regret for stealing from his mother for drug money, he uses lyrics from “Veteran‘s Day Poppy“, the closing track off of Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica (it don’t get me high/it can only make me cry), “Insult Song“, comprised of banter directed at the incoming members, most notably a quip once again referencing Don Van Vliet (“we thought they wore masks until we asked them to take them off/they took the trout replica a bit too far”), an awkward rendition of Merle Haggard’s “White Line Fever”, with Smith backed by the American members‘ harmonizing vocals. Reformation! Post-TLC coalesces elements from Fall Heads Roll (2005) and The Real New Fall LP (2003) and continues the Fall’s consecution of consummated standards.
Mark E. Smith’s autobiography ‘Renegade: The Gospel According To Mark E Smith’ is set to come out this April, while ‘Perverted By Language: Fiction Inspired By The Fall’, a collection of short stories (contributors include Michel Faber, Niall Griffiths, and Peter Wild), follows on June 28.
[http://www.sloganrecords.com]
JT