The Fall
Imperial Wax Solvent
What do get when you put Captain Beefheart, five random musicians, a pile of 60's garage records, a sampler & a 51 year old Salfordian into a blender, well I'm guessing it would sound a little like the new (103rd) Fall album.
It would be hard to ignore the 11.37 minute, 4 part epic '50 Year Old Man' as THE addition to the Mark E Smith canon, but new Long player 'Imperial wax Solvent' has a least four other Fall classics "Is This New' ("I was provoked") 'Exploding Chimney', 'Can Can Summer' & 'I've Been Duped', the latter another lead vocal outing for keyboard player Elena Poulou, that could easily claim that title.
The basic formula is still in place, if you stopped your Fall buying with 'Slates' or 'Shift work' you happily pick it up here again, the Mancunian rambling's, paranoid / indecipherable lyrics, the Stooges meet the Count Five with a rockabilly rhythm section (plus a pinch techno). What is fresh here is the overwhelming sense of FUN, if they didn't have a good time recording it, then they should have done!
