The Fall - Ersatz GB - Cherry Red - CDBRED5000

The Fall's 29th studio album, in 35 years, finds Mark E Smith fronting a kind of amphetamine drone rock band. The 2011 model grooves on two or three chord riffs, pounding bass booms, and Eleni Poulou's retro keyboard blips, like some ancient krautrock legend, but pin-eyed with punk intensity, spattered with Smith's kaleidoscopic shards of dog-growled observations, and serrated throughout by Pete Greenway's stuttering guitar skree.

And when Poulou takes the mic to intone Nico-style over the bittersweet Happi Song, it's one of The Fall's most successful changes of mood.
Dear me.
Now all other rock music suddenly seems rather silly. The Fall remain our most vital group.

(13/11/11)