Various Artists – Before The Fall – Ace – CDCHD 1299 - *****

Before The Fall is a superbly sequenced selection of rock and roll, vanilla soul, reggae, garage, country, psychedelia, prog and novelty nostalgia, each track having once been covered by Manchester's art rock survivors The Fall.

Approach in ignorance and emerge thoroughly educated by The Fall's front-man Mark E Smith, whose ears, though famously waxy, remain psychically alert to rock's alternate timeline of forgotten classics. Journey from Gene Vincent's Rolling Danny to Wanda Jackson's Funnel of Love via The Kinks, Lee Perry, Captain Beefheart, Henry Cow, Pete Seeger and Sister Sledge in a life-affirming, twenty four step programme of cultural detoxification.

(13/3/11)