I'm not a huge fan of COTC, but I think that's to do with the production; I have the bootleg of the unreleased version and perfer it enormously. I also like those songs a lot when I hear them performed live.

Here here!!

uhhh, i have, actually had, hex enduction, plus the 50000 fall fans...comp and like their three last albums and like 4 bootlegs from all around their career, i think i haven't heard enough to give a full opinion...i'd say hex enduction but that's probably because i miss the damned album and reminds me of the bastard that nicked it from me. i rocked fall heads roll pretty hard when it came out.

I think this lyric from how I Wrote Elastic Man kind of sums up The Fall's musical direction over the years:

"Life should be full of strangeness
Like a rich painting
But it gets worse day by day"


In the begining The Fall's music was strange but now they play bog standard rock n roll, admitedly it's good bog standard, but it's still bog standard.

there really are so many to choose from but today i go with hex induction hour, followed closely by dragnet.

has anyone seen the video to kicker conspiracy? its a classic.

of the official albums

hex enduction hour
closely followed by perverted by language
and then fall heads roll, i make no apologies for loving this great great mark e document...

as for other releases

the peel session 6 cd box is essential, im sure ive said that before......
also palace of swords reversed
and maybe 50,000 fall fans cant be wrong is a great place for beginners.....

I may have said this to you in person, but in case I didn't, I say "Pah" to you and your opinion of the Fall.

Honourable mention to Infotainment Scan. If your from Britain theres so many references on this album (came out 1993?) that make perfect sense today, lots of very subtle comments on the culture of nostalgia, how its often perpetuated by people who were never there in the first place. VERY diffferent sound to the early stuff and some very cheesy covers (Including Lost in Music) completely reinterpreted to mean something different entirely. Its also a very vulnerable sounding album.

"Vimto was always crap"
Hats off.

good to hear that, i don't understand why so many fans are dissing that album, definitely the best thing they've done for years...

The following line in that song:

"I'm a potential DJ"

I think is a line is hinting towards his future role of selecting from an ongoing array of musicians as being akin to a DJ who also selects from his array of records, and then talks over them.