Whats your favourite cover? All omissions are my fascist little attempts to tell you what I deem to be too crap to vote for. In terms of design etc. Photo covers which look fairly ordinary. Very plain stuff like Totales Turns and really really crap covers like Middle Class Revolt etc have not been included.

'Totale's' cover is genius and probably would've got my vote. There is a fine line to be trod here; 'Totale's' (genius) and Sparta (naff) are ostensibly very similar, but in reality are miles apart.

Bend Sinister for me then.

Sorry. I nearly included it because its anti design is a sort of design I guess. But then I thought that people would more likely vote for pretty pictures. I shoulda probably have done a COMPLETE list but it was shear laziness on my part. I humbly apologise.

Slates, Palace of Swords Reversed, and Levitate, all arguably among the better Fall album covers, aren't on your list.

From what I understand the overall design for Totales' Turns' cover was replicated on other bands' Rough Trade live albums.

Anyway I voted for Hex 'cause it's funny, messy, threatening, deliberately incoherent, baffling, enigmatic, and yet looks like a statement of purpose.

I think these polls only allow up to 40 entries or something like that, so you couldn't have included all album covers. But it probably would've been better to do all proper studio releases, plus a selection of the more significant live albums and comps (though that'd be inevitably subjective).

A shoe-in for Hex. Not only best cover, but best album.

Once again apologies. I think I missed Levitate off by accident actually. It was late and my eyes were getting squity. I probably shoulda waited til morning to write it up. I definitely meant to put slates on there. Tho Im not so keen on palace of swords and I only included HP&K becoz it I thought it was especially pretty as a compilation, which is the same reason I put on Fiend with a Violin and no other reciever/trojan comps.

Cabaret Voltaire's Live at the YMCA is certainly similar. Do we know for sure that the Fall's was released first?


Anyway, I also like the artwork for Levitate.

. . what's not pretty about mark's acrylic jumper on Oswald Defence Lawyer?!
I love that photo :wub: oh!brother

Yes but is it art! ^_^

`
. . Andy Warhol would've murdered for a jumper like that B)

I always thought the Marks n Sparks diamond pattern tank top was the ultimate in Mark E Smithware.

m&s or bury market?

Arbitrary selecton of covers makes this poll very frustrating.
So I'm going for Are You Are Missing Winner.

Somehow I KNEW it was you that voted for AYAMW before I even read your post... :nahnah: I Suggest someone redoes the poll with the whole shebang of Studio LPs and anything else that fits on but I can't be bothered to do it myself.

Me neither.

I reckon people are voting for the music as well as the sleeves – very hard to not associate one with the other.

The AYAMW cover is actually quite interesting: certainly one of the better post 1980s sleeves.

Yeah I actually agree here. A lot of the later covers are somewhat crap tho. Too many are just abstract swirly patterns etc which have nothing to do with the music or the band and show very little effort. I miss the earlier covers sorta scrapbook homemade look. I do like 2g+2. Its a nice sorta trancey cover but its OF something, there design to it. The album on the other hand is hardly a Fall great, still its got some kicking stuff on there.

Wonderful and Frightening is my fave cover, followed closely by Grotesque, PBL and HEH.

Wondering if anyone here is familiar with New Zealand's Dead C. I am really fond of this band.

The Dead C. have a (supposedly) live album called "Clyma Est Mort" which has a hilarious sendup of the cover of "Totale's Turns"-- it says "It's Now or Never" but it's crossed out to where it just says "It's XXXXXXXNever!"

Funny stuff and a great album to boot.

Surprised more people havent voted for Grotesque...

I voted Grotesque!

I probably would have voted Totale's Turns, but I didn't realize that this was more Rough Trade effort than a Fall effort.

If I remember correctly, the Rolling Dany record may have had a cover as good or better than Grotesque.

My vote for worst cover art: "Hit The North" 12 inch. There is a fine line here: Grotesque: not-too-silly; Hit The North: too silly.

Final Note: Undilutable Slang Truth / Room To Live has a similar but better cover art than Hex. Then again, I think it is a better record than Hex also. Blasphemy!

Post Final Note: How did Claus vote -- his covers were pretty rockin'!!

Post Post Final Note: I always thought Dragnet was the least Fall-like cover art. For that reason, it is kind of funny that this art is used so prominently on this site. Still, it is a nice piece of art and it is right up there with the best covers.

I voted for Hex here. An absolutely original album cover, and a design/concept that many bands since have shameless copied (i.e. Radiohead etc).

Second favourite is Levitate. This is because it is quite surreal, and it reminds me of a lot of the Beefheart photos from the Trout Mask Replica house (i.e. strange mask related madness combined with a coloured filter for the camera).

Stangely enough, I've never been too fond of the Dragnet cover, but it seems to be almost as popular as the Hex one here.

What would everyone's LEAST favourite album cover be? For instance, one that is purely by-the-numbers, bland or unoriginal? I can't pin down a specific one at the moment, but will post it later. I feel there has been quite a few covers that are quite poor!

Hex, what I voted for, was indeed a bit of a shocker. Maybe that's just me after being used to things like P. Saville's Factory sleeves, the 4AD stuff, etc.

Perverted By Language is a very close second, I love that painting, it pretty much sums up my world view.

I suppose Cerebral Caustic was a shocker on the other end; I can remember picking that up, looking at it, and going "what the hell.......?

hard to choose-context is everything-in my angst re consumerism and the reefer madness that is the war on terror crap i'd say the uk rnflp, but the classic montage/cutup designs with scribbles and photos etc are ace-and the pascal designs are cool-mcr is quite alright design and the tt is a classic-gb you have clyma est mort? that is a very rare piece indeed and spun out you have h &c jaws of life-i take it you know what a slab is? :D

DRAGNET; iconic

I no longer have the vinyl of Clyma est Mort. Have a nifty CD I made of it tho'.
Jaws of Life is a classic to me. Dunno, but I always assumed "slab" related to like being a cadaver in a morgue er summin....

Grotesque & Early Years caught my eye right away--BEFORE I ever heard the music I knew this had to be great. The most unusual things in the import bin next to Faust sleeves. Also, the colour xerox Slates. I was intrigued by the way their first seven or so sleeves each had very distinct aesthetics

bet your kicking yerself-its worth a bit now, a slab is a case of beer-

Actually, I just offloaded it a couple weeks ago. I did pretty well and got a nice CD-R of it with cover, et.al. off a killer turntable. I did that with ALL my Dead C vinyl actually, then sold off all the singles, etc. I miss them but I needed the scratch.

Never have managed to track down the vinyl version of Harsh 70's Reality or the vinyl-only Operation of the Sonne. Yet...

Brilliant! I thought I had a lot of the British slang/alternate from amerikan word usage down.

I mean, barrister...spanner....damn I feel the idiot.

But it's a MUCH better
meaning. Is that what Hunters and Collectors meant by "Betty's Worry or the Slab"? Casts the song in a whole new light...

might be-its the one based on a trucker (song starts with truck starting up) who drove his rig into a bar in the Northern Territory killing a few people??

I remember when I was a lad I liked the clean smartness of The Frenz Experiment, but I voted for Bend Sinister. It's simple and effective, good photo of MES.

Hex Induction Hour and A World Bewitched come close though.

I agree.
I'd like it tattooed on my elbow like the hard old blokes have spiders webs on theirs.

code selfish is great and so is the cover of unutterable anythign with a sports cover is good

Well, Levitate is mine but i can not vote for it.

So I went for TNSG - reminds me of getting into the fall in the late 80's and upon purchasing the album made me realise the bands identity and routes.

"Perverted By Language" - like Claus Castenskiolds work very much. And think that his paintings illustrate perfectly the albums of that era. Wonderful and frightening at the same time.

Yes. From a design point of view then I like this the best. It would make an excellent T-Shirt as well. Bend Sinister is also a favourite of mine.

Absolutely agreed. Dragnet's cover is what influenced me to buy the album in the first place. One of my US friends bought me a t-shirt with this design about 18 months ago which I wear on really special occasions!

More agreement from me - though I had a crisis of conscience about not voting for Hex, not coz of the music, but because it is so indisputibly The Fall.

My new CD of Totales Turns came in a smart white cardboard sleeve. It actually looks really classy.

caught the web of MES - Dragnet

I wouldnt have thought that but for the fact that I went for grotesque just ahead of perverted by language

Went for Cerebral Caustic in the end, though I hesitated awhile over Dragnet

I just love the winged MES and what's wrong with an iluminated skull, I wanna know? Nothing.

Worst: Light User; AYAMW.

Edited to say that if I were voting for music I wouldn't have CC anywhere near the top...

Can't remember what I voted for now... WFW, I trust.