The Fall Cup: Stage 1, Groups 23-24

           

Group 23

Tuff Life Booogie, Two Steps Back, Kinder of Spine/Spider, Joker Hysterical Face, Sing! Harpy, Iceland, Theme from Error-Orrori!, Irish, Serum, Bug Day, Terry Waite Sez, Clear Off!, Flat of Angles, Middle Mass, Look, Know

Group 23 was regarded by some of the panel as one of the toughest groups yet (bzfgt described it as 'brutal'). I certainly found it really challenging, in particular to find a fifth choice that would get no points.

The Fallen

There was little love for 'Tuff Life Booogie'. Lewis thought it 'chucked together'; Richard's view was that it's an 'adequate B-side shimmy let down by annoying vocal hook'. Lewis' take on 'Terry Waite Sez' was 'I love it but it's too bloody short', but bzfgt dismissed it as 'slight' and Eric disliked Brix's 'thin and breathy' vocals.

Richard and I both had some regard for the entertainingly bonkers 'Kinder Of Spine', and bzfgt said that he 'loved it but ran out of points'. Lewis, however, thought it little more than 'a bit of wacky filler'. Eric was even more critical, decrying the 'half-baked lyrics and poor MES vocal performance'.

Although Extricate is not among my favourite Fall albums, I might have given 'Sing! Harpy' (not the group's first or last re-working of a Stooges song) more points in a less formidable group. bzfgt, however, thought it 'kind of empty'. Lewis and Eric's objections regarded the thinly veiled attack on Brix in the lyric (although it should perhaps be noted that she didn't seem to mind so much: 'I love the song, and at least he calls me skinny and a good lay').

Gavin Friday's contributions to TWAFW-era songs are generally highly divisive in the Fall community, but 'Clear Off!' was more damned by faint praise from the panel. Steve Hanley is not a fan of 'Bug Day', describing it in his book as mere 'filler', but it received moderate support here: Lewis thought that it has a 'creepy dimension that suits the album'.

I was disappointed to see three songs that I really rate fall short of qualification. I love the exuberant humour of 'Irish', but Lewis thought that 'the guitars are mixed way too high' and Richard found it 'a bit sloppy'. bzfgt is, like me, a fan of 'Theme from Error-Orrori', but suspected that it would 'probably get called turgid in some colourful way'. Richard obliged: 'Such a sluggish performance, it’s like some rough beast slouching towards Italy to be ignored'.

I found the early exit of 'Serum' - a wonderfully dark slab of ominous electronica - particularly dispiriting. Lewis appreciated its quality, but although Richard did credit the 'fat rhythmic punch', he also thought it 'lacking in true character'. bzfgt gave it four but recognised that it 'deserved way more'. Indeed it did.

The (Are You Are Missing) Winners

In a departure from previous groups, the top six were all from 1979-82. Nobody will be shocked at 'Middle Mass' topping the group, but they may well be at Eric's failure to give it even a single point. As with 'Sing! Harpy', his dislike stemmed from the (possible) personal attack on a fellow group member, in this case Marc Riley. 

Group 24

C.D. Win Fall 2088 AD, And Therein, Dead Beat Descendant, The War Against Intelligence, Pre-MDMA Years, That Man, A Day in the Life, Gibbus Gibson, Lay of the Land, Cab Driver/City Dweller, An Older Lover Etc., Jam Song, Is This New, Mansion, Ponto

There was some discussion the other day on the Fall Online Forum regarding which of the panel was demonstrating the most outlying choices. I will have some statistics on that issue for you when we get to the end of the first stage, but in group 24 it was clearly Richard who was the most out of step with his fellow panellists: three of his zero-pointers qualified overall, and all five reached the top nine. In addition, for the seventh time, Eric saw one of his top two selections fail to make the next stage.

The Fallen

It's a mark of how divisive this group was that this was only the fourth time that there have been no songs getting zero, and the bottom score of six was comfortably the highest so far (up until now it had been 'Gotta See Jane's three points in round 16). 

For me, 'A Day In The Life' is easily the weakest of The Fall's covers. Not because I'm precious about the Beatles' original, but because by playing it so surprisingly straight, all the group did was expose MES' vocal limitations. Eric went so far as to call it 'abjectly embarrassing'; Lewis' comment was simply 'why?'.

Given his track record, you might have expected Eric to have been a fan of 'Pre-MDMA Years', but in fact he thought that this 'noisy piss-take... did not hold up'. 'Ponto' and 'That Man' both garnered minor affection but were never likely to progress. 'Mansion' is a perfectly good opener to a great album, but suffers in this sort of environment from being taken out of context.

I think there's much to enjoy in the quirky, staccato narrative of 'Is This New'; bzfgt, although he didn't give it any points, thought it 'just fine' and wondered if Eric 'might save it'. He didn't.

Although it's not a particular favourite of mine, I thought that 'The War Against Intelligence' would have a decent shot at qualification, so I was surprised to see it get a zero from three of the panel. bzfgt dismissed it with the comment, 'not bad, just not that good'; Lewis disliked 'the godawful misuse of a violin'; Richard considered it to be 'fine, but ironically short on ideas'. To continue the 'what do I know' theme, I would have had the (to my ears) awfully dated house-style collage 'C.D. Win Fall 2088 AD' as a shoe-in for nul points. 

'And Therein' is not a terrible song by any means, but having listened to a lot of bootleg recordings for my book, I grew rather tired of it, for reasons that Richard captured very succinctly: '[it] proved too easy to teach new band members, and so we are burdened with a clutch of uninspired plods along its riff'. bzfgt thought that it 'really hits it', but his enthusiasm was nowhere near enough to see it progress.

The (Are You Are Missing) Winners

No surpises with the top two. 'Dead Beat Descendant' (a 'classic' according to bzfgt) also made a predictably strong showing. The other three qualifiers might raise some eyebrows (especially 'Jam Song', about which Richard commented, 'If you need to have it explained why a Fall track called 'Jam Song' gets zero you’ve missed the whole f*cking point'), but I shall leave discussion of their merits or otherwise for the next stage.

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