Excited by the recent podcast on the mighty Fall from the long, long days, I’ve been giving some thought to the band’s ‘imperial’ period. To help us decide, here’s a list of their studio albums….
Live at the Witch Trials (1979)
Dragnet (1979)
Grotesque (1980)
Hex Enduction Hour (1982)
Room to Live (1982)
Perverted by Language (1983)
The Wonderful and Frightening World Of… (1984)
This Nation’s Saving Grace (1985)
Bend Sinister (1986)
The Frenz Experiment (1988)
I Am Kurious Oranj (1988)
Extricate (1990)
Shift-Work (1991)
Code: Selfish (1992)
The Infotainment Scan (1993)
Middle Class Revolt (1994)
Cerebral Caustic (1995)
The Light User Syndrome (1996)
Levitate (1997)
The Marshall Suite (1999)
The Unutterable (2000)
Are You Are Missing Winner (2001)
The Real New Fall LP (2003)
Fall Heads Roll (2005)
Reformation Post TLC (2007)
Imperial Wax Solvent (2008)
Your Future Our Clutter (2010)
Ersatz GB (2011)
Re-Mit (2013)
Sub-Lingual Tablet (2015)
My question to you, Fall fans, is when you think their imperial period began, and when did it end?
Me, I think it spans the era of Dragnet (1979), which is when they left behind punk leanings and really established their eldritch sound, to The Infotainment Scan (1993), possibly their most accessible album and their highest charting one to date.
The only album during that period I’m not wild about is Bend Sinister (1986), but I don’t consider it poor enough to break the run. That honour goes to Middle Class Revolt (1994), the first below-par effort in my opinion.
After that come many brilliant albums — I adore The Marshall Suite, have a very high regard for Are You Are Missing Winner? and The Unutterable is without question a classic — but that period between 1979 and 1993 is the era I’m suggesting they were untouchable.
Let’s here your thoughts, lookback bores. Have I been ludicrously generous? Too harsh? Are we currently enjoying an imperial period?
Hard to argue. I might be inclined to end it at Shift-Work as the last end-to-end consistently good album. And there’s for everyone one weak spot in the eighties – for me The Frenz Experiment, where the MES/Brix soap opera seemed to distract from the music.
And it’s bright spots interspersed with showers ever since.
I find that I logged out after Infotainment, and only joined in with Hex. So I guess that is my golden period. Which turns out to be about half way through their albums, and less than half way through their career. Though I have the collected Peel sessions, and enjoyed watching them on Glastonbury TV last year, I do believe I have had enough.
Always different, always the same – I still like the idea of the Fall, but don’t find time for actually hearing their new stuff.
(My favourite is still the mostly live A Part of America Therein)
I like to see them as one long continuum. ‘Imperial Phase’ suggests that there was a time they ruled the world. They never got close.
I’m most grateful to them for their mid Eighties output. When everyone else was a bit shit under the tyranny of the Linn Drum, The Fall stood firm and produced their best and most enduring albums.
‘Imperial Phase’ is I think either a Smash Hits-ism or an NME-ism. I’m pretty sure it was a Neil Tennant Smash Hits bit of jokey journalistic overstatement – e.g. Imperial Phase Johnny Hates Jazz
Think when referring to the PSBS ‘Discography’ collection he said it encapsulated their Imperial Phase
From the debut upto Infotainment (still their only top 10 album in the UK.)
I got off the bus when Brix returned, as noted in Stephen Hanleys book that last tour with Brix was a disaster and saw them live in London, an absolute drunken shocker of a bad gig. My last Fall album was Cerebral Caustic. Or the easier response is to say it ended when Hanley and Scanlon left.
I know what you mean about the face-value meaning of ‘imperial phase’ but I think it more means, ‘a time in which they could do no wrong’.
Okay, tightening it down a bit, I reckon 1983-1993.
Good call but excludes Hex, and I’m not sure I could contemplate that, which I’d argue is their apex.
True, so 1982-1993. Misses some I’d like to include (Totally Wired, Middle Mass,) but does include the Rough Trade and early 90’s era.
Imperial. As in New Clothes, right?
(OK, officer, I’m going, quietly, no fuss…….)
I’m going to be more harsh and say ‘Imperial Phase’ is the records that a relatively casual Fall fan (if there is such a thing) should own and in that case I would say everything from Dragnet to Extricate and lets include Totale’s Turns as an essential live album (and A Part of America Therein/The Fall in A Hole as optional extra), plus The Peel Sessions and a compilation of single tracks (Palace of Swords Reversed perhaps). ‘A Past Gone Mad’ compiled by Afterword favourite Stewart Lee I think provides a pretty good overview of the best post-Extricate tracks. Latter day Fall, I’d suggest go and see them live as the newer stuff is best heard in-situ.
A Past Gone Mad is indeed a belter but next time I see that Stewart Lee I’ll ask ‘No Telephone Thing, Stew?’
Current fave is ‘F’olding Money’
Yes, you’re probably about right PS. I love The Unutterable and Your Future Our Clutter though. I think the best versions of their songs are on The Complete Peel Sessions e.g Sparta FC and a storming version of Blindness.
I think the love for the Peel sessions is in danger of becoming a misleading trope which ignores Tigger’s excellent point about The Fall being a continuum.
Yes, there are excellent individual versions on the Peel Sessions, and yes it is an essential addition to any Fall collection, but The Fall are a brilliant albums band, and each album is a document of where the band was at the time: snotty punk on ‘Live At The Witch Trials’, rockabilly on ‘Grotesque’, the Lovecraftian atmosphere of ‘Dragnet’ and ‘Hex’, later forays into dance music, ballet and the avant grade.
Not only that, but the albums represent a narrative arc of the band as a unit, with Smith its capricious leader. Just as there are lots of ‘Revolver’, pushing-creative-boundaries albums in their back catalogue there are also a bunch of ‘Abbey Road’, band-in-tumult albums. You can’t listen to ‘Extricate’ without thinking of his personal life at the time (divorce, father dying), or ‘Levitate’ (post-Brownies fight) without knowing that here is man hanging on by his fingernails. Brix leaves! (‘Extricate’). Brie returns! (‘Cerebral Caustic’). One of the things I’ve always loved most about The Fall is watching that narrative unfold. It’s one of the reasons I’m disillusioned with the current line-up. A lack of turbulence has induced creative stasis.
Regardless, the wonderful and frightening world is still best experienced via the albums. I’ve got a lot of love for the Peel Sessions box, but as snapshots the sessions should be considered a support to the main feature.
I think on the podcast we suggested that the Peel box might be a good jumping off point as an overview of their career as we though it was still cheap as chips.
Yes and it no doubt is. I’m just trying to prevent this idea gaining traction, that the Peel box is somehow the ‘definitive Fall’.
It’s an attractive idea because it’s Peel and it’s The Fall and they belong together and the box certainly contains many definitive individual versions but it’s by no means the full story — is what I’m saying.
You’re not even joking, Mr DFB: for those who deal in MP3, €3.99 on Google Play for six “discs” of Fall Sound! (and – yep – many of the alternate takes really rock).
Great podcast too!
For me 1983-1990 (hardly a foot put wrong).
However, my favourite 3 albums back to back are the 2005-2008 output;
Fall Heads Roll (2005)
Reformation Post TLC (2007)
Imperial Wax Solvent (2008)
I still maintain that Middle Class Revolt is a top top album. M5#1 is a tune!!
Noooooooooõooooooooooœòō
Behind The Counter, Junk Man, M5#1 – all classics in my book 🙂
I have shared this previously but here is my ‘Best of The Fall’ again;
As I got into the band in the mid 2000s I lean towards the more recent stuff. The line up around Reformation Post TLC was great IMHO.
I do wish I had seen a Steve Hanley line up though. After reading his (excellent) book I got more into the earlier albums & have now settled on 83-90 as the imperial phase.
Looking forward to Brix’s book which is out on the 2nd May. Already pre-ordered it & hoping it’s a good read.
Don’t know if anyone else spotted it Poppy – “Brix leaves! (‘Extricate’). Brie returns! (‘Cerebral Caustic’). ” I wish I could remember those mighty cheese years better. I do recall they were signed to Fontina for a while.
Virtually impossible to pick an Imperial Period as isn’t it? If I really had to, I’d go from 1984 – 1994. But please don’t make me.
Yeah, I know. Blimmin’ autocorrect.
Good ideas above about the imperial phase,and I wouldn’t disagree with going from Dragnet to around 92. I think another marker, although this is a bit unkind, was the way MESmith went from being a respected, cutting edge type of cult artist in the 80s to something decreasingly relevant, and then into a bit of a joke figure. A writer for The Wire once described him as a downwardly mobile Bryan Ferry: a clever young man who became trapped in a public image that hampered him. Still enjoy and can be surprised by his work though.
No strong opinions on The Mighty Fall except that they were appalling at Glastonbury last year, but anyway – this (from the Daily Mash) made me laugh lots.
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/mark-e-smith-closing-in-on-escaped-fall-member-2014100291258
(I don’t think any comedy product has had such a long hot streak as the Mash is currently enjoying since the Simpsons in the 90s, btw)
I find The Mash like a blunter version of The Onion
The Onion misses as much as it hits these days. Too long winded much of the time. I reckon. The Mash’s strict house style restriction on word count is its secret weapon.