At best another of MES's indulgences that just has to be put up with and at worst unlistenable and perennially skipped, these songs crop up every so often.

In the otherwise excellent Imperial Wax Solvent it strikes me every time I listen just how bad 'I've been Duped" is. Sounds more like toy Euro punk than anything else. Admittedly some fierce competition from the list above, but it gets my vote for the worst non-MES vocal song by the Fall ever.

Yes, Duped is the low point on a otherwise very good album ~ so i'm going with that.
Though Hotel Bloedel is obviously genius and should not be on any "worst of" lists :angry:

Not sure about 'genius', but Hotel Bloedel is very good.

I didn't mean that all the ones on the list were necessarily bad, they were just the ones I could think of off of the studio albums. I actually quite like 'The Wright Stuff' as well. It sort of reminds me of 'Mother Upduff' by Can.

'I've Been Duped' is also very good.

Voted for Bonkers In Phoenix - am I the only one who hates it?

Trust In Me not far behind, but it's salvaged by it's ROD style backing.

Can't believe no ones voted for Stay Away yet! :o

And I won't hear a bad word against Duped or Overture! :angry:

I'm no fan of it, but that has very little to do with Brix' vocals really...

Candidates for me are Stay Away, Hands Up Billy, The Wright Stuff and I've Been Duped.

Going for Duped I guess, as I think it's the worst song off IWS (while the others have even worse songs on their respective albums)

EDIT: Where the hell is "The City Never Sleeps"!!?? That sure would get my vote! :sick:

It's not the vocal that annoys me, it's the bloody stupid electronic feedback interjections that I can't do with.

The alternative version on the reissue (disc 2) is far better.

Dead right - complete cack, that one! :huh:

Ditto.
Nice idea in theory to fuck up a sweet love song with ugliness, but I get no pleasure from having my eardrums split by some random noise at ridiculous sound levels... <_<

Veins on leaves
A cat of kings--(cat can stare at king-ref)
A mouthful of seed
A strand of beads
An hour of lust
A bucket of trust
Its time to rest
My shiny things-(pretend were not addicted to consumerism for a weekend)
Pull them off
Pull them off
Pull them off of me
Little one, please dont cry
Shiny things you just cant buy
,
You never know though, eh? eh?
Genius.
I do think eleni sounds better on the right stuff than in shouting mode though.

I would have voted for (or against) Vixen if it was included. Nothing against Brix, but on this song her vocals really grate.

On Overture from "I am Curious Orange" the vocals are minimal anyway.

In the end I picked Hands up Billy. Not particular fond of the song overall, but there are superior live renditions by MES.

Am I the only person who loves The City Never Sleeps?

Yes! :lol:

Philistines!!!

Am I the only person who loves Outro? :lol:

Yes! :lol:

Philistines!!!

I'll second that!

PS Bonkers in Pheonix is a wonderful song.

The scraping interference is great!

No !!

I would put "Birthday" on the list before "City" (esp. since there is no official studio version of the latter.)

Minor point, but MES does appear on both "Duped" and "Trust In Me."

(Are "Hands Up Billy" and "Duped" the only Fall tracks on which MES exclusively does backing vocals?)

My vote would go to... Taurig.

I voted Stay Away.

As much as i love Burns his vocals grate like hell on that. Crap cover version too.

Glad Portugal wasn't on the list as it's my favourite non-MES moment.

Yes, this poll is a non-starter without this pile of crap in it. :D
And that other pile of crap: Birthday. Probably the two worst Fall songs period.

And Brix sounds dead sexy on Old White Train; and Eleana's voice is sexy on anything she sings.

I only included those that had got onto one of the studio albums. A slightly higher level of quality control preumably than a b-side or something that had been played a few times live. Presumably.

I'd be interested to hear from anybody who knew how the more recent of these came about. Obviously Brix's songs were her own finished songs. But was 'I've been Duped' written specially for Eleana to sing (ala Lee Hazelwood writing for Nancy Sinatra)? Was it orginally going to be sung by MES? If so when and why did he bail out. It does seem stylistically to be very different from the rest of the album. Much more obvious.

Same questions for 'Wright Stuff' I suppose.

Probably written for Elena, as she's always been singing it since it premiered live last summer.
I seem to recall it's changed a bit since then as well, the first gigs it sounded almost identical to "Stepping Out"...

No. :D

Why were Brix's song obviously her own?

I have always believed that Wright Stuff and Duped were actually written by Eleni.
Could be wrong of course. ;)

Fair enough.

Ok, out of this list there are no tracks that are awful and I actually like them: no skip button stuff here. I suppose I would have to go for The Wright Stuff as the one I like the least.

"Hands Up Billy".
I would still like the other songs listed if they werent Fall songs.

But that one is hands down, throw ya MP3 in the pond material. Billy.

i went for the kurious oranj one, as brix is bloody dreadful on it, but hands up billy is pretty bad. neville wilding was never very good at vocals, was he?

mike bennett must be the worst offender, but thankfully he was never alllowed to shout on his own. that would just be too horrific.

Bonkers is a thing of sublime beauty with or without the "interference". But preferably with.

From the list, Overture. It has pointlessness by the bucketload. Stay Away, Old White Train or whatever it's called is dire too. But given the chance I'll be running with the Vixen hounds - a proper stinker at a time where the group very rarely sucked.

I too love The City Never Sleeps and am generally a fan of Lucy Rimmer, although I'd have to draw the line at Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

where's "the knight the devil and death" ??
that's a bit poo.

Agreed :applaud:

Gone for the other Brix effort, though. Overture is such a low point on the KO album it almost kills the whole record.

I don't like I've Been Duped, but Trust In Me is far worse.

Hotel Bloedel is genius...SUPER GENIUS even.

Like all the songs on the list. Bonkers is a great experience.

Old White Train is great. Brix is great.

Most of these songs have MES in them.

Trust In Me, I guess.

Other than Hands Up Billy, the rest are near or classics. The low of Unutterable.

I like Hands Up Billy. MES sets things up, then pisses off for a pint and a smoke, leaving Wilding to hold the reins. Mes then returns, adds his two penneth, job done!

Well it's better than Midwatch anyway! :lol:

I like all the songs listed esp Hands Up Billy

Can't fathom out why Overture gets such a slating all the time. :confused:

Try the Drambuie Gas Boiler blog for a 'Midwatch' demo tape, donated by 'Invisible Girl'
A really interesting listen. (cyber insect demo on there as well I think)
Good story behind it too, Kurious Orange posted a link to a video project that featured it. The Glow Boys?.
-----------------------------------
What is it with all the slagging everything down? (Not you specifically Rainmaster) is it the hot weather?

Wasn't slagging anything down - if anything I was bigging up Overture and Hands Up Billy, which had a lot of flack thrown at them.

{I did slag Midwatch a bit... ;) }

Here you go,
Midwatch+Cyber-Insect Demo.