Latest Release
- MAY 12, 2023
- 4 Songs
- Grotesque (After the Gramme) [Expanded Edition] · 1980
- Live at the Witch Trials · 1979
- Fall Heads Roll · 2005
- The Frenz Experiment · 1988
- The Frenz Experiment · 1988
- Bend Sinister · 1986
- Hex Enduction Hour (Expanded Deluxe Edition) · 1982
- This Nation's Saving Grace · 1985
- Extricate (Expanded Edition) · 1990
- This Nation's Saving Grace · 1985
Essential Albums
- When The Fall hooked up with produced John Leckie and the much larger Beggars Banquet label for 1984’s The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall, many fans viewed the move with curiosity. But while the sonics are improved from the band’s earliest days, it isn’t a radical reorganization of priorities. The songs do sing a bit better, with actual melodies poking out in spots, but the emphasis is, as always, on the splatter-effect lyrics and vocals of leader Mark E. Smith. Subsequent reissues of the album have included the singles “C.R.E.E.P.” and “Oh! Brother,” b-sides, and the Call for Escape Route EP. Some tracks date from The Fall’s early days, such as “Copped It” and “Draygo’s Guilt,” and the performances range from complete and powerful (“Lay of the Land,” “No Bulbs”) to raw and impassioned (“Elves,” “Slang King”). “Clear Off!” is positively gothic, with its slow moody crawl. The album highlights the importance of longtime guitarist Craig Scanlon, whose riffs often make the difference (and for whom the raw “Craigness” is no doubt named). The expanded edition includes rough mixes and additional versions of the album tracks.
- 2017
- 2016
- 2015
- 2014
- 2014
- 2020
- 2020
- 2013
- 2010
- 2010
- 1988
Artist Playlists
- Mark E. Smith lords over four decades of punk mutations.
- How to channel Mark E. Smith's dry wit and furious scorn.
- The garage rockers and proto-punks that made Mark E. Smith.
- A gentler side of post-punk's most scornful band.
More To Hear
- Tunes from Cage the Elephant, Kelela, The Fall and Knox Fortune.
About The Fall
The post-punk era was defined by rock bands expanding their horizons with non-rock influences, but for The Fall, the experimentation was as much verbal as musical. Upon forming in Manchester in 1976, The Fall were among the legion of cantankerous combos rising up in punk’s first wave, but the band’s frontman, Mark E. Smith, sounded less like a singer than a pirate-radio broadcaster narrating a never-ending documentary about England’s descent into dystopia. Early Fall records were a roiling mixture of rockabilly racket and primitive Krautrock, and by the time they released their first messterpiece, 1982’s Hex Enduction Hour, the group had already developed a reputation for revolving-door lineups that were as unsettled as their music. But with the addition of Smith’s American wife, Brix, in 1983, The Fall enjoyed a period of stability, brightening up their sound with synth accents, group-chant hooks, and Kinks covers that landed them within striking distance of the UK Top 20 charts. After Brix’s departure in the mid-’90s (around the time savvy Britpop bands like Blur and Elastica were channelling The Fall’s irascible essence), the group underwent many more permutations, yet always retained their uncanny balance of caustic energy and cryptic commentary right up until Mark E. Smith’s death in 2018 at age 60.
- ORIGIN
- Manchester, England
- FORMED
- 1976
- GENRE
- Alternative