(We Wish You) A Protein Christmas Released December 2003 on Action Records (CD and double 7”) 01. (We Wish You) A Protein Christmas (Smith/Watts/Pritchard/Milner/Archer/Poulou) 3: 32 02. (We Are) Mod Mock Goth (Smith/Poulou) 4:44 03. (Birtwistle's) Girl In Shop (Smith/Birtwistle) 3:54 04. Recovery Kit 2# (Smith/Pritchard/Lally) 4:04 Mark E Smith - vocals Ben Pritchard - guitar Simon "Ding" Archer - bass Dave Milner - drums, vocals Elena Poulou - keyboards With: Spencer Birtwistle - drums, keyboards (track 3) The Fall enter the lucrative Christmas singles market with this rather bizarre ‘reworking’ (although it’s almost a new song) of Proteinprotection. It’s quite good I think, I don’t mind when the Fall have a bit of fun. A good little EP with the second and 4 tracks appearing later on the US RNFLP. (Birtwistle's) Girl In Shop is quite unusual sounding but enjoyable, a bit like one of those collaborations that MES did with dance acts in the 90’s.
Stepping back to The Real New Fall LP, I gave it a listen on the way to the dentist this morning. Every track is at least listenable, and overall it's such a strong, consistent piece of work. A career highlight, for sure.
It is just a really strong set of songs and performances back to back. The good thing is that it has stood the test of time. When it came out I asked myself "is this really as good as I think?" or am I making it better in my mind than it is, because I want The Fall to have made a really great album again. It has proved itself to be as good as I thought. I keep hoping they will equal it again as there have been some pretty good albums since, but not quite at this level.
50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong - 39 Golden Greats Released May 2004 on Sanctuary (2 CDs) 01. Repetition 4:56 02. Industrial Estate 1:41 03. Rowche Rumble 4:01 04. Fiery Jack 4:45 05. How I Wrote 'Elastic Man' 4:20 06. Totally Wired 3:25 07. New Face In Hell 5:41 08. Prole Art Threat 1:57 09. Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul 3:07 10. The Classical 5:16 11. Hip Priest 7:45 12. The Man Whose Head Expanded 4:25 13. Kicker Conspiracy 4:18 14. Eat Y'self Fitter 6:35 15. c.r.e.e.p. 2:56 16. No Bulbs 4:28 17. Spoilt Victorian Child 4:12 18. Cruiser's Creek 4:15 19. US 80's-90's 4:33 20. Mr Pharmacist 2:19 21. Living Too Late 4:27 22. Hey Luciani 3:34 23. There's A Ghost In My House 2:36 24. Hit The North 3:59 25. Victoria 2:43 26. Telephone Thing 4:10 27. High Tension Line 3:46 28. Free Range 4:20 29. Why Are People Grudgeful? 4:27 30. Behind The Counter 3:10 31. M5 3:33 32. Feeling Numb 2:46 33. The Chiselers 3:13 34. Powder Keg 3:17 35. Masquerade 3:50 36. Touch Sensitive 3:15 37. Crop Dust 5:33 38. Susan Vs Youthclub 3:37 39. Green Eyed Loco-Man 3:46 After a seemingly endless number of compilation albums, some admittedly superb (the original Early Years, Hip Priests and Kamerads, Palace of Swords Reversed, A World Bewitched) but most pretty underwhelming and some downright appalling, we were finally treated to the impossible – a great career-spanning overview that worked for the new and old fan alike. I guess with any group who had (by then) 23 studio albums plus stacks of essential unique singles and B-Sides then picking 39 tracks isn’t going to be easy, especially with the mandate to represent each era of the band. And no two fans would agree about the tracklisting I’m sure, and on the whole it would be pointless to criticise the final running order to any great degree. Although I will say that the lack of any tracks from the Infotainment Scan and the Unutterable is a flaw for me and I could easily have lost some of the Beggars tracks and 90’s singles to accommodate some tracks from those albums. But really it’s an impossible job to narrow it down to two CD’s so I can overlook any omissions. As an introduction to the group it works really well. Roughly split into three parts, the pre-Beggars ‘Indie’ years, the Beggars years and then the 90’s to present day. You can’t really go wrong if this is your first Fall purchase. And I, like many long-term fans who had all these tracks anyway, could enjoy it as well. It just seemed quite cool with the Elvis parody cover and title and with so many dodgy Fall releases I felt the need to buy the good ones in the hope we would get more in the future. It was a nice collection to own.
I had just emigrated to Canada when this came out and bought it practically on release day, its a great compilation probably my "go to" 2 discs if I'm driving a long distance and need a bit of Fall on the journey. It was actually issued on Beggars Banquet in North America. It would also make a nice vinyl box set for beginners if pressed on 4 or 5 lp's.
This also gets frequent plays on long car journeys. All the hits and more! (Although I did get asked to turn it off recently by a chap I was giving a lift to. Apparently he preferred 'baroque' music. And madrigals. We completed the journey in silence.)
_50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong_ is absolutely the first place a new fan, or a fan who got off the bus long ago, should start. At two discs it's the appropriate length but not too long like the Red Box can be. As I said, sometimes I just want a great overview of an artists output, and this is it for the Fall. Two discs is 2-2.5 hours and is just about all I'd want in one sitting from any artist. Except when I play the Peel box, that just pulls me in for hours and hours.
Wait a minute! Someone you were giving a lift to asked you to turn off the music of your choice? In your car? If he is so besotted with Baroque why not go (or rather walk) all the way and get out? That bloke was lucky MES wasn't in the car with him
My Castle 2004 expanded deluxe edition of Grotesque has an error in the booklet. The Daryl Easlea album notes are covered by paper clippings so therefore unreadable.
Theme From Sparta F.C. #2 Released on June 2004 on Action Records (CD and 7") 01. Theme From Sparta F.C. #2 (Smith/Watts/Pritchard) 3:52 02. My Ex Classmate's Kids (live) (Smith/Blaney) 5:01 03. Theme From Sparta F.C. video (mpeg-1 video file) 4:28 Mark E Smith - vocals Ben Pritchard - guitar, vocals Simon "Ding" Archer - bass Dave Milner - drums, vocals Elena Poulou - keyboards, vocals Produced by: Mark E Smith and Simon "Ding" Archer Some pressings of the CD also include a WAV and MP3 version of the track Portugal which was left on by mistake. A worthy addition to the Fall singles discography although not much in terms of added content. You are better off buying the US CD to get the A side now.
I have this on 7" and is one of the few Fall releases I have from my own Fall 'wilderness years' where I kind of stopped following them for an extended period. Sparta FC is a monster track, maybe even trumps Kicker Conspiracy as their ultimate football anthem. There is such a great video for this online, the visuals of which are an edit of a 1988 short film, 'Virile Games' by Czech animator, Jan Švankmajer. Anyone know the story behind this, was it a legitimate use of the video or something someone mashed up for YouTube? Works perfectly with the track and is way better than the official video for the song.
Yes, this is without doubt the best and most considered Fall compilation. A true diamond in the rough with Sanctuary actually bothering to get tracks licensed right across the breadth of their career for a proper overview. Well chosen tracklisting with decent packaging. I doubt there will be a more definitive compilation of the band's studio career. Comes close to In: A Palace Of Swords Reversed in terms of comps, but that one was focussing on a specific period and came out at a time when the material on it was hard to get so a different beast.
Palace was my gateway into the Wonderful and Frightening world. Can you believe emusic used to carry a ton of Fall albums??
Come on I will show you how I will change When you give me something to slaughter ... a great dissection of the hooligan/mob mentality. Sadly gaining new traction around the world given some of the dark forces being unleashed by recent political events.
