Graham Reid | | <1 min read
Mark E
Smith of Britain's marathon-running post-punk agit-prop outfit The
Fall, is nothing if not consistent: He's still annoyed at the world
and putting his anger and observations into a brittle, confrontation
garage-noise, electro-distorted musical context.
His
vocals on Bury Parts
1 and 3 here come from the
bottom of some sulphur pit in a factory then haul themselves into the
nightclub for some abrasive guitar chords before he comes on
declaiming in typical speak-sing style about how much suffering you
will go through, and some other stuff besides.
On this,
the 28th
album under The Fall's name, Smith is typically elliptical,
political, personal and sometimes it's hard to fathom what he's on
about.
But give
him this, he does it with passion and this album bristles with sonic
and lyrical menace – yet never sounds off-putting because clanking
electro-disco grind and mechanical rhythms haul you in.
So
galloping cowboy rock, the extraordinary, constantly morphing
mini-epic YFOC/Slippery
Floor with its
post-Bukowski/Burroughs contemptuous sneer, the cover of Fifites
rocker Wanda Jackson' Funnel
of Love,
the gorgeous if distorted ballad
Weather Report 2 . . .
Compelling,
oddly appealing, poetic – but an acquired taste still. And always.
post a comment