1988 was a busy year. Which of these is the better album?

"The Frenz Experiment" gets a lot of coverage recently. Deserved, I think. It gets my vote. An accessible album with rough edges.

That could be easily said about "I Am Kurious Oranj", too. But TFE seems to me the more complete album.

This is hard to decide. But under consideration of the bonus tracks on the CD my vote goes to The Frenz Experiment.

Did you mean the bonus tracks on Frenz are great, or that the bonus tracks on Kurious Oranj (unavailable elsewhere, in some cases) are pants ?

I like the 5 bonus tracks on Frenz, especially Guest Informant. more than Guide Me Soft, Last Nacht and Big New Priest as the last 2 are merely versions of other album tracks.

There's only three songs on Kurious Oranj I ever listen to - Prinz, Van Plague and Cab It Up. Apart from that, the material is weak. Frenz is more consistent, good but not great.

Frenz holds up much better than IAKO.

Frenz by a mile, though Oranj improves with time.

Despite having Guest Informant on its side, I vote KO - I like its dark corners, subtleties and surreality.

This is insane, Oranj out front by several lengths. It may not be their best, but god there's some truly all-time great Fall songs -- which I can't really say for Frenz. With a couple of exceptions of course.

Tied on 8/8 now — more votes needed!

curious orange

The Frenz Experiment - the first Fall album I bought - after reading about them in Smash Hits.

This is a toughie. I rank them both pretty high. Also, both have some filler. I really can't make up my mind here...I suppose I listen to Frenz more but I love Oranj. When it came out I bought it on both vinyl and cassette (wanted to keep the vinyl unplayed) and I wore out the tape. Played it incessantly.

Now I have them both on CD and (recently acquired) vinyl...have to mull this over more...

1988 2 albums, one year. 2 reasons why one fall album might have been better than 2. Kurious Oranj wins it for me. Some great songs and some absolute shit. Frenz has some average songs and some shit by comparison.

i cant get on with kurious orange.. the artwork, the hamburger, jerusalum, no, cant get on with it. maybe it needs more listens tho.

I don't see the 2G+2 option.

I've grown to like Frenz slightly more over the years, though it's mostly filler, while the value of Oranj has plummetted. Oranj was one of my first exposures to the band and I was quite keen on it in the late 80s, but once I discovered the earlier material, Oranj's weaknesses became obvious.

Kurious Orange has some great tracks, But for whole album listening I have to vote for Frenz.

I have a lot of time and love for both. Probably the two Fall albums I've been playing most the last couple of months.

Gave my vote to Frenz - for maintaining a high quality throughout while IAKO is more of a mixed bag. Frenz really works amazingly well as an album, allthough Victoria breaks it's stride a bit...

Could well be two of my least favorite albums - but as per usual Frenz contains one of my fav Fall songs - Oswald Defence Lawyer... gosh its great!!


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"exiting back of mind"

I'm lucky enough to be able to consider "Oranj" a live album, for the wonderful live tape (45 mins each footy way, natch) that found its way to my car stereo on permanent rotation at the time.
So, TFE, a fucking brill stripped down uber-pop LP. No? Oh yes!!

I like the songs on Frenz better - so I went for that. The production of Kurious is better , but its songs are relatively crap.

kurious oranj is clearly better, but the best track from 1988 is 'guest informant'.

......a difficult choice but 'Frenz' just shaves it for me.

frenz experiment is a seriously good album, not a bad track on it with some of my fav fall songs on it (frenz, oswald defence lawyer). kurious oranj starts off superbly but kinda trails off, although big new prinz is almost enough to make it as good as frenz

Just listened to these two and would vote for Kurious Oranj now. Wicked!

Love the Frenz experiment, it's like the light at the end of the tunnel of a bad comedown, some of it sounds paranoid as fuck, until you get to Bremen nacht and everything feels like it just might be alright again, can't explain it really, love it.

Oranj is class aswell, went for Frenz though.

frenz for me no question. that album gets slated a lot but i always loved it. the years between hex and frenz were the best for me, it was after fnz that things got a bit inconsistent, imo. that said i think some of the recent stuff has been back up there.

This was the year I discovered the Fall... and the first two Fall albums I bought. Frenz was my favourite of the two back then and remains so. It's one of the Fall albums I'll happily play in its entirety without wanting to skip a track. I originally bought the cassette version which includes Guest Informant - still one of my all time favourite tracks - didn't realise til years later it was a bonus track not included on the vinyl LP. Id since re-bought it on cd but I rediscovered that cassette when I moved house a year or so ago and it stayed in my car tape player for months - much to the exasperation of my good lady. :lol:

Athlete Cured, Frenz, Carry Bag Man are all blinding but there's really not a duff tune on there. Over the past 20 years Ive come to expect Fall albums to include at least one totally shit track, so Frenz is something of a rarity for me in that respect, plus it always takes me back to my youth and reminds why I got into them in the first place. Whether or not I include Guest Informant as being part of the album Frenz has always remained on my favourite Fall LPs

I do like Kurious Oranj - some great tracks - New Big Prinz, Cab It Up!, Kurious Oranj are my picks - but not as consistent as Frenz.

Frenz

Marry me. :wub: