The Fall - The Wonderful and Frightening World Of

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Press release

Remastered from the original analogue tapes specially for this vinyl edition is pressed on 180g VINYL, this is a LIMITED EDITION of 5000 copies, with gatefold sleeve printed on heavyweight board and newly designed inner bag.

The eighth Fall album consolidated the abrasive sextet’s relationship with producer John Leckie, who helped expand their musical palate without sacrificing individuality.

The presence of guitarist Laura Elise, better known as Brix Smith, expanded the unit’s tonal capabilities, but they remain firmly a vehicle in which singer Mark E. Smith vented his spleen. His vitriolic lyrics were as uncompromising as ever, even if now-accustomed dissonance is occasionally paired with neo-psychedelic nuances.

The Wonderful And Frightening World is the one where her pop sensibilities begin to surface, ameliorating the band’s chaotic energy and framing Smith’s splenetically misanthropic lyrics within tighter song structures. This might have failed to please some long-time Fall fans, but the band still deliver muscular and pounding settings for some of Mark E. Smith’s finest rants: “Bug Day” recounts a vision of insect revolution, “2x4” extols the braining of people with planks of wood, and opener “Lay of the Land” revisits the frantic rockabilly much in evidence on Fall recordings.

The Fall are one of those quintissentially English post-punk bands. Formed in Manchester in 1976, the band were very much part of the early punk local scene that heralded The Buzzcocks and have existed in some form ever since, and are essentially built around their founder and only constant member Mark E. Smith.

The group’s musical output has gone through several stylistic changes over the years. However, The Fall’s music is often characterised by repetition, an abrasive guitar-driven sound, and is always underpinned by Smith’s vocals and often cryptic lyrics, abstract poetry filled with complicated wordplay, bone-dry wit, cutting social observations, and general misanthropy (sometimes more implied than clearly stated, but

apparent nonetheless).

The band’s output is prolific, they have released over 27 studio albums, and more than triple that counting live albums and other releases. They have never achieved widespread public success beyond a handful of minor hit singles in the late 1980s, but have maintained a strong cult following.

The band were long time favourites of the dearly departed BBC DJ John Peel, who championed them from early on in their career and cited The Fall as his favourite band, famously explaining, “They are always different; they are always the same.”