The Fall Cup: Last 32, Ties 5-8
Tie 5: Blindness v All Leave Cancelled
Steve: Much as I love the unhinged anarchy of "Leave", it can't stand up to the Peel or Palais versions of what my wife calls "that one that goes 'dung-a-dung dung-a-dung'."
Eric: As with the "Bury" vs "Couples" match-up above, this pairing features an stompy, accessible, tight number against a big sprawling assemblage of weirdness. And as in the prior case, I'm going to pick the punchier of the pair. It's delightful that a super-strange b-side like "Leave" has advanced this far, but it's hard for me to embrace it as one of the final Sweet Sixteen entries.
bzfgt: I just voted three times in a row for what may be the weaker track. This time I’m going with the blue chip.
No, f*ck it, ALC is cranking right now and this cracked quasi-psychedelia is the Fall I love the most at this moment. Put this in the books with Couple vs Jobless, I’ll own it.
No, I can’t do it. For some reason this is the hardest one yet. I’m going to vote Blindness but I don’t want it to win it all, Academic Hamilton will never respect us again.
Richard: All Leave Cancelled is a blast, but there are so many versions of Blindness to enjoy, some sleek and slinky, some lead-footed and all-consuming, that it has to win again; a personal favouriote is Renfrew Ferry, 2008, where passing the mic gains an extra depth.
Lewis: As with Couples v Jobless, I was impressed with the group's later attempts at the wilfully obscure proggy sounds, this one coming as such a shock following Wise Old Man on the EP. Blindness has its imperfections it has to be said, the flat UK album version for a start where the Yanks got a much better mix on vinyl, but without Blindness it's quite possible I would have never heard All Leave Cancelled at all, or anything else since the Jools Holland show which dragged me back to The Fall and financial ruin. And for that Blindness must win once again.
Result: Blindness 5 - All Leave Cancelled 0
Tie 6: Garden v Leave The Capitol
Steve: A horrible choice. Capitol's off-kilter arpeggios, choppy chords and intriguing lyrics are an almost perfect example of what made early 80s Fall so special. But Garden is also a perfect example the group’s compelling use of controlled repetition, and MES is on such peerless form that it has to get the nod, just.
Eric: This is one of the two most utterly terrible choices, for me, to be made in this round. If the competition had resulted in these two songs going head to head for the final championship, I'd have felt like we did our jobs well, and with deep insight. But that ain't the case, alas, and we have to make choices now, not later. With loads of regret for voting against the sprawling and atmospheric "Garden," I've got to once again pick the punchier of the pair here, with "Leave The Capitol." It's a fine distillation of so many of the unique aspects of Fall In Studio, and you can enjoy it twice in the time it takes to get through "Garden."
bzfgt: This one is really easy for me. I find LTC overrated—top 20, but not top 19. Garden is mysterious and funny. No one else made music like this, yet it feels so right and good.
Richard: Both very strong musically, but while Garden contains one of my favourite fractured Fall insults, "that person is films on TV", Capitol is stuffed with amazing lyrics, and is surely the closest MES got to adapating Lewis's tone in Blast.
Lewis: There's a sparseness about PBL, having lost Marc Riley, that sometimes pays off but not always. With Garden it actually doesn't need another guitar so is one track where his absence is not a problem. The problem is it's too bloody long and a bit like Blindness, the LP mix is slightly dull compared to say the Peel version. And where they were probably after a classic, the finale with those crashing keyboards is a bit harsh to listen to. Leave The Capitol is, if anything, the complete opposite. It's almost too sleek and laid back, but it is hugely listenable and there's lots within that sleekness to pick out. Not least Riley's guitar, but also not forgetting right against the feel of the song MES spits out a most venomous vocal. It's a cracking song all round, a quite easy choice for me.
Result: Garden 2 - Leave The Capitol 3
Steve: It's been a fun ride, Noel, but it's probably the right time for it to come to an end. Sorry Eric.
Eric: At the start of this project, I'd have lumped "Elastic Man" in that bucket of early singles/songs that seem to bear extremely high esteem among the Falloisie, but which don't actually do a whole lot for me. As as result of regular listens, I'd say that "Elastic Man" has risen a good bit in my estimation, though I still find the chorus annoying, representing brief blips in interest that interrupt the goodness to be found in the verses, musically and lyrically. But that rise in esteem isn't enough to make me consider voting against "Noel," with its stately mien, Viking horns, and abdominizer.
bzfgt: Each equally worthy. The stately pseudo-horns of Noel get it this time.
Richard: Noel has had ana amzing run, and the digi-medieval dirge has shown its hidden depths, but the pristine story-telling of Elastic Man wins another round.
Lewis: Poor Eric, he's championed Noel for as long as I can remember and his love has paid off so far here. It's actually quite a beautiful song and I don't say that about much I listen to and enjoy, so this could be my issue, The Fall are not renowned for beautiful songs. And as I noted before, it seems MES himself wasn't chuffed with it so tagged it onto the end of a patchy live comp as you do. Elastic Man is the obvious winner of this pair, a true great, not much more I can say to that. I suppose I could question the slightly overlong ending, the chorus repeated a few too many times, but we dig repetition don't we? Wonderful 7" sleeve, maybe the best.
Result: Noel's Chemical Effluence 2 - How I Wrote 'Elastic Man' 3
Tie 8: Winter v Neighbourhood Of Infinity
Steve: Neighbourhood's strangely fractured swirl (especially on the Palace version) certainly deserves to be here, but a last 32 finish feels about right to me. Winter (in its entirety) is, like Garden, a classic example of the early 80s Fall's mastery of the long-form, musically hypnotic narrative and needs to go further.
Eric: This match-up looks and feels a lot like the earlier "Garden" vs "Leave the Capitol" one, with a sprawling two-part lyrical epic going up against a terse and grinding little gem of goodness. But I'm going to flip the narrative here and vote for the long-form "Winter," which has always felt like the heart of Hex Enduction Hour (along with the departed "Iceland"), and to perhaps atone for the heresy of voting against "The Classical." It's delightful to have a deep cut like "Neighborhood" still in the running, but I think its race is done here
bzfgt: The hardest final for me would be Winter vs. Garden. Winter is probably objectively their best song, whatever that means. “Sometimes that little [keyboard flourish] makes me tremble…” is a stunning moment
Richard: A tough match. Winter walks the sonic line between the tritely simple and the thrilling whilst the lryics find that sweet spot between mundanity and the otherworldly. Neighbourhood sounds like a maximal clatter by comparison, and is perhaps lyrically a little more self-consciously baroque. Today I choose Winter, but by tomorrow I may find that my desire has turned rotten.
Lewis: Of the early 80's lengthy Fall songs, the ones they'd maybe have liked to be epics, Winter is the one as long as it's in its Peel session format, ie. not chopped in half. It trounces Garden and Hip Priest as well as bettering Hexen/Strife Knot. It's mood, despite aforementioned hacking, suits the cold Icelandic feeling of Hex Enduction Hour perfectly. Unfortunately though it finds itself randomly generated against one of my all time favourites, the brilliant Neighbourhood of Infinity with it's giant moths and dark alternative live versions, which I will champion almost as much as Eric does with Noel.
Result: Winter 4 - Neighbourhood Of Infinity 1
Comments
Post a Comment