220) The Fall - Are You Are Missing Winner

My last line for The Unutterable was “A strong record then showing that sticking with the same band can lead to a bit of consistency, you know what he is going to do don’t you?”

So, of the five musicians who made The Unutterable guess how many of them are on Are You Are Missing Winner? The answer is one and you may have heard of him, Mark Edward Smith.

This is the twenty third album I have written about this band and if you don’t like them then you are never going to like them but if you are interested whatever you do don’t listen to Ibis-Afro Man. I love The Fall but even I can acknowledge that they released some rubbish, and this is right up there. It’s as if they went on Blue Peter and handed them a load of tape and they have stuck it back together with sticky back plastic, its over nine minutes long, just skip it.

We open with Jim’s The Fall which has an excellent bass throughout as Mark ensures we know this is a new band and he is more than happy with it. We are back with cover versions on this record and Bourgeois Town has a lovely recurring riff throughout and Gotta See Jane new drummer Spencer Birtwistle shows his chops, both have their merits.

Crop-Dust is hypnotic (and on reading seemingly a steal from The Troggs I Just Sing but I don’t know that song, so I’ll stick with hypnotic.) Smith seems to be looking for a garage bans sound, and we have this with My Ex-Classmates Kids and a great shift in tempo on Kick The Can. The Acute is a rare acoustic track from The Fall and is lovely but again we have rubbish with Reprise:Jane/Prof Mick/Ey Bastardo.

Rumour has that this was battered out fairly quick and the production seems to prove this point the album sleeve is truly atrocious.

Not a classic but not the disaster that some claim.

6.25/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: Bourgeois Town