The Fall: Reformation Post TLC (Japan ed).

Thirty years on from their birth The Fall have once again sprung from the pit, and the pendulum appears to be favouring their rise once again. Thankfully for this helpless expat-acolyte, this means they have a Japanese only release of their latest creation, released here in Japan on Valentine's Day 2007. Yet the slightly saddening thing is a lack of additional aural goodies within the attractive package. Even worse: I received nothing on this Japanese Valentine's Day (where only women buy chocolate for their menfolk). But I did at least receive the 26th album by these living leg-ends.

That's enough for me. For this is a band who rescued me from the sting of The Police when just fresh into two digits, John Peel had just played The Fall's take of Mr. Pharmacist and this young lad captured that brutal mauling of The Other Half classic onto a cheapo Kwik Save cassette. Over the next few days I re-played it again and again and again, amazed - to the chagrin of family, by it all. Perhaps the family sensed the inevitable addiction that swiftly set, and though I didn't know the full meaning behind that particular song, enough of a lasting impression did pass into mine to begin a welcoming affliction as Smith's unique vision was first glimpsed. It pulled me in-deep, leaving U2 jets, Queens and Police sirens withering away in its midst; way before teen-age time-arrived, my parental-approved collection of such mass market-targeted tunes were gladly given away at school not long after.

Two decades on and much enjoyment has emerged from the words of the Smith. As a young lad, he had already led many to Lovecraft, Blake, Henry James, and Burroughs, artists that school would sadly rarely touch upon. The allusions to these past masters were sprinkled inside early releases - see here for a wonderful look at Smith's early allusions to literature and establishment of his own vision - the songs and words of Smith acting as knowing reference pointers which stimulated many who appreciated a sound that swiftly left the seas of the punk/new wave scene of Manchester in which it initially emerged. Dubbed 'country and northern' in the early 80s, the sound was buttressed by a stubborn anti-fashion-look, that left no trace of flab to be co-opted by pretentious thought. This deceptively intellectual, bona fide, working class man astounded me upon initial discovery - here was no class hero - as he often decried WC culture - but here was one with leadership qualities aplenty; a man whose passage to fame was continuously checked by his own mistrust of the cogs of the music machine which demanded an alien word to the Smith cannon: compromise. Rather than betray his WC roots, and be co-opted by bourgeois art critics, rightly or wrongly he stuck to his guns and remained unaffected.

Despite this approach, well received plays were written about William of Oranj and Pope John Paul with theme based albums never short of phrases that upgraded the status of indie pop and single-handedly raised its intelligence quotient.

So, what of this 26th studio album: Reformation: Post PLC? Recorded in a year in which one group of musicians supposedly upped and left Smith in the middle of a US tour (only to be swiftly replaced by superior performers), it's a top drawer album in my admittedly prejudicial book. The change of personnel must have been bubbling for a while, with the last elpee's title Fall Heads Roll giving an inkling of change afoot. But what's astounding and suspicious is how swiftly he found 'the right staff' to replace the pub rock electronica of the last gang, who had helped propel Smith back to a fuller profile that led him bizarrely to read Final Score on BBC last year and see Mitsubishi use "Blindness" in their US car adverts this year. This new album is full of fighting spirit, but punctuated by an uplifting atmosphere helped by the presumably temporary American musicians (from Darker My Love). It seems that the time is ripe for them to build on their formidable popularity as a live band, and sell units....

But this is unlikely. Not as the album is bad - predictably it was love at first listen for this hapless fan - but I do wonder whether the uninitiated would persist after opener Over! Over! with its apparently drunken sounding vocals? They might also be enraged by Das Boat and its meanderings which divide aficionado's as I type. Ramshackle in a way that their cover of Iggy Pop's African Man was, it's amateurish electronic sound collage doesn't offend me, but would, undoubtedly, turn off many others.

Hopefully others would persist though as there are gems within, including the opening song, which is funny to my ears, with Smith growling "I don't love yer, and I never did!" repeatedly in a singing voice dripping with so much sarcasm that it might detect attention. By persisting you get an album that gives off a number of alt.styles with more restrained vocalics than is the Smith norm. Still, the repetitious droning of Reformation and Systematic Abuse will please those who want the no-nonsense Smith of old, but I'm a fan of the vicious, softly spoken - chanted- voodooesque song that is "My Door Will Never" in which somebody is targeted with a death wish within Smith's 'mind-eye'. Paradoxically, this may well be the most therapeutic track of them all.

There's more highs embedded within: is "I can never repay, my friends from my childhood days.." perhaps inspired by original liner-upper Tony Friel's website publishing of early letters and staked claim towards the origin of the band's name; is "Coaches and Horses" a tune taking its thread from Needles and Pins by The Searchers; is his wife talking about Genesis P. Orridge's plastic woman's bosoms in "The Wright Stuff/Staff? All and more will likely be revealed through later listens.

Later listens, however, might have to be confined to an mp3 player - the missus already having shown her displeasure - "are they tuning up instead of playing the song?" And this from someone who appeared to love much of Fall Heads Roll.

Supposedly taking its cue from the last line-up's departure and other Mancunian groups reformations for dosh to keep their Cheshire homes free from the taxman, the topics are thankfully not purely self-referential. Thankfully too - the musicianship remains primal, but with added subtlety, though these stateside hired hands are surely here on a temporary basis. I hope not though, as if Smith is to fully regain his focus, they could provide the necessary back-up to a gentleman entering his sixth decade, and whose cover of Merle Haggard's White Light Fever is lovely to hear. That song expresses the main man's realisation-in-song of the long road already traversed. Is an end soon to be in sight? Hopefully not, as this new release has once again proved their continuing relevance .


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Any newcomers be forewarned! There's a lot of ball scraping compilations that don't do The Fall justice. Good introductions: 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong / This Nation's Saving Grace / Grotesque / Extricate / Hex Enduction Hour / Slates, Slags, Etc: All these show certain sides to The Fall which might well delight you.

A ballad from 1990! Chart success in the 80s. Last year!