This current group is generating some of the most positive reviews for quite some time.
So the question is this, are we entering a new Classic era of The Fall?, I think we might be :o

Everything gets a positive review around here.

Not always. You can tell if a release/gig is crap, because everyone goes quiet. :lol:

I love every album of the last decade, so I think it's just business as usual.

To be fair, there have been plenty of comments for the current gig reviews that have not been strictly positive. Many of the other reviews seem to be concentrating on microphones, amp fiddling and so on, which I find quite alarming. I'm hoping for an exciting album, I've struggled for the last few years, I want my Fall back. They have to recruit a second guitarist and think very hard about losing that keyboard player.

They are on a roll live at the moment - quite stonking.
London and Southampton were two of the best times I've seen them in 25 years.

Give it a rest, you aren't going to get your Fall back.

A classic Fall period would include some classic lyrics, which sadly seem to get sparser as the years pass.

However, the trend is definately upwards.

Seen them twice in Glasgow last weekend, been about 18 months since I saw them last. Got to say I think the band is growing in confidence and there is more complexity to the sound. (This doesn't necessarily mean they're better of course.)_
But the sonic palette has expanded. Often difficult to tell whether what is played is effected guitar or the expanded keyboard set up.
Band seem to know how to play around each other, rather than just all going bam-bam-bam in unison.
Also, Smith seemed to be making an effort, rather than just going through the motions. Setlist seems to be changing from night to night.
New stuff was unfamiliar but is growing on me with repeated listening.
Will the new album be any good?
Dunno.
Might end up half arsed and lazy; might end up over-rehearsed and lifeless.
But my favourite albums of the last ten years are Interim and Reformation, so what do I know?

Gruppe is very much grooved in (and I seriously doubted it a year ago)...which means some solid... if not (and hopefully!) BLINDIN stuff.
It all depends on MES; he has the core he so needs...now, does he have the x-factor to make brilliance? You better believe! You enjoyed Smith n Blaney... now enjoy this new er-uh.
Recent performances suggest: SMILE! :D

To be fair though Richard, when we drove with you to Southampton, you thought you were in Manchester.

I have to admit that was one of the most entertaining car journeys for quite a while.

Are we there yet?

You know I'm right though. The Fall will never change with that keyboard player. How can it?

Did you not read those reviews or are you deliberately ignoring them? Hardcore fans moaning, why would that be?

Is this true?

The bit about you all being in the same car?

:applaud:

would be inclined to agree with second guitarist required

i think so because the only way you can get away with one guitarist is if tha guitar player is a real stylist (now that i think of it, even the smiths used a second guitarist didnt they). i dont think that the current guitar player is in that league

a good-ish rhythm player but thats it

so, maybe add a second guitar or keyboard player (and let eleni fill out the general ambience)

i think neither guitar and keyboard are up to it as it stands. which means overdubs in the studio and approximations of the songs live (i can live with that but i know alot of people can't)

the argument would be that the line up develops its own sound. and nobody would deny that. the problem i have is that that sound is
not the most interesting i have heard of late

it probably is sacrelige to say it here but i think mes would be better served in a very differnt set up?
wouldnt agree over the lyrics though. think they get better all the time

We were - but you've jinxed it with your optimism! :angry: :lol:

An integral part of the evening.
The car still smells like an old pub, (which is an improvement). :beer:

What, in The Fall?

A stylist?

^_^

i know what you mean lol

but, hell, yes... a stylist (a vague term i know but....isnt mes a stylist par excellence!

the current guitar sound doesnt stand out from a lot of other guitar sounds you hear

i mean fuck it, why do it if you arent going to really do it?

Koko was rockin'. ++ good.

Greenaway was a big part of the ++ness.

He is ++ worthy of a place in The Fall.

I hate guitar bands , one guitarist is ample, although it did take two of em to fill the boots of my all time favourite the mighty Martin Barmah. as for key board players.. Elena is the new Una....er for years and years now

Scanlon, Bramah, to some extent Riley, and especially Brix are Stylists, in that we recognize their styles and guitar tones, and can differentiate them from each other (and from other guitarists). They have their own style, therefore are Stylists, IMO. I haven't heard that much of Greenway, but he does seem interchangeable with any number of other guitarists, almost like a dread Session Man. Maybe that's the sound MES is gunnin' for, though... :confused:

EDIT: Wish I'd read Mr. Snowy's comments first, :lol: but I stand by my opinion, such as it is.

Sorry error post... er....thats it..............perhaps I should say something............ nah....... you've been drinking mate.... should that matter.............dunno...........er........Pete Greenway.............what was the question again?

I guess it depends on what you mean by stylist.

Stylist to me, is someone who defines their own sound without anyone else having a say.

The Fall have had some, but they didn't last long.

Greenaway has been great when I have seen them live, and the guitar on IWS is fine. Do you want garage or not? The Fall are garage now.

They're a garage band and they have a garage guitarist man.

:D

I like Pete Greenway, best bass player UFO every had

I should go to bed.

Right that's it, I'm off, Mrs Hexen Hour has called twice and I'm pissed, I mean knackered.

I spell it Greenway because that's how it's spelled in the Timeline here. Until they change it, Greenaway is just a bad film director to me... :whistle:

You can be a Stylist and be garagey at the same time. Like Ted Falconi. Or you can play like Tommy Tedesco wearing his 'garage-y' hat cos that's what the session calls for. 'Nuff said... B)

[QUOTE]

maybe you are right

maybe the guitar playing is deliberately being kept back. when i saw them in dublin last year there were some very good guitar parts

but you would think that at this point something definitive/cahracteristic would have emerged? of copurse i am goin gon the live stuff thats being put up on dime and maybe this isnt the best way to hear whats going on

i thought that the last album was fine in places but lets hope that the new one is better (why do it if it isnt going to be better

all the same, i think your 'interchangeable' is a good way to describe the guitar sound

That's a really good point. This lineup has been together for awhile, and if anything sort of unique or idiosyncratic was going to emerge, it would have by now. But the next album will tell. MES doesn't like to do the same sort of album twice in a row, we know that, so whatever it's like, it probably won't be IWS 2.

That says it all! Especially after you've done so many already... Overall, though, I'm very happy a new album is coming out, whatever it's like. More Fall has never been a bad thing... B)

In fairness, I can remember "hardcore Fall fans" moaning like fuck when Shiftwork came out and I imagine a fair few moaned when The Frenz Experiment was released. In fact you could probably go back to the Grotesque era and I'd imagine there were hardcore Fall fans moaning that it wasn't another Dragnet. Fall fans have been moaning for a loooong time, but the internet makes it really easy to see all the various moans in one easy place. It's a bit like the fear of crime - crime levels haven't really gone up by any great degree but because you see it on the TV every day you assume they have.

I blame the internet, we should all turn it off now & make our own minds up. Me. I'll keep turning up for the gigs until I don't enjoy them anymore and then i'll stop.

Simple solutions are usually the best really. :)

:applaud: post of the decade

Sorry, no new comments, just really enjoy reading everyone's opinions, thanks. :beer:

Sorry, no new comments, just really enjoy reading everyone's opinions, thanks.

(except everyone who has bad opinions about greenway, I believe he has an unbelieavably good surfy garagey tone)

He does get a good tone. I wish he were louder, in fact, on the shows I've heard... B)

I don't think that the Internet has anything to do with how boring a band are. That's down to the band.

and the listener.

And in comparison to previous work.

They're all classic Fall periods.

They're also all uneven, frustrating, disappointing, confusing and farcical.

:applaud:

But what about the music?

I like the keyboards.