There's been a
lot of crappy things about the past week (organization restructures at work,
another bloody cold, watching £100 of fireworks take about 90 seconds to go
'bang' etc etc) ... But the week will be remembered largely for the being able
to spend lots of time listening the upcoming album By The Fall, "Ersatz
G.B."
For those of
you unacquainted with The Fall (where have you been for the past 30 odd years
and equivalent number of studio albums !!!), you may not realise the
trepidation that can precede listening to new stuff ... Fall albums can be stunning, average or train wrecks with the past few erring on the pretty damn
good, albeit inconsistent.
Here, the same
lineup that delivered the last two albums (something of a record in the world
of Mark E Smith) churn out the most consistent Fall album in many a year.
Now the challenge here is to assess consistency v quality and after
20 or so listens I'm gonna say we're in (by Fall standards) 9/10 for consistency
and 7.5/10 for overall quality ... Trust me, this is a pretty special place to
be!
One thing that
has to be said is that Mark's songwriting and vocals sound incredibly fresh in
that he sounds 20 years younger. "Taking Off" for example,
sounds like it could have come from 1992's "Code: Selfish".
The two exceptions to this nostalgia are "Greenway" and "Monocard"
which are as rough, dirty and excellent as they come (I pity the cat and the dog
at this point).
Ela takes
vocals on "Happi Song" but otherwise we have the best example in
years of the genius of Smith ranting over a gas-tight band.
Trepidation
over, brilliance confirmed ... Roll on next year where we will no doubt go
through it all again!
8.5 / 10
Released 14/11/11
