by
The Fall
- Record Label: Action / Narnack
- Release Date: Jun 15, 2004
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Making up for some momentum lost last time out, The Real New Fall L.P. gives the faithful another reason to believe.
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Alternative PressThe Fall rock with scalding fury, as if it were 1981 again. [Aug 2004, p.116]
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BlenderThe mood is unsettling, exhausted and energetic at the same time. [Oct 2004, p.120]
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What sets The Real New Fall LP apart, however, is the consistency of its greatness. Every Fall album has had a bum track or two since 1984, but this new record really doesn’t.
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Positively stomps and bristles, with Smith and his band summoning up the type of chutzpah not normally found in middle age.
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FilterA crisp-sounding, very coherent, vocally comprehensible collation of shapely, spirited power-pop-punk nuggets. [#11, p.93]
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The years are beginning to show on Smith, especially on the opener, "Green Eyed Locoman," but his backing band hasn't sounded this energetic and enthusiastic in years.
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MojoIt's as good as anything in this group's monstrous catalogue. [Dec 2003, p.120]
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So while not breaking new ground -- a near impossible expectation given the amount of ground The Fall has already broken -- The Real New Fall LP is a strong indication that Mark E. Smith is nowhere near finished.
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as brittle, volatile and consistently riveting as any band out there, and even though no one could possibly take Smith seriously anymore, it insinuates that there's still enough justification here to warrant following The Fall's devious discography into one more decade.
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This is the sound, throughout, of a remarkable institution doing all the things they do best and sounding as alive as they ever have.
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If the Fall... have not just released their best record in a decade, they have certainly released a more consistent and accessible one, just in time for the tail-end of the post-punk renaissance.
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Q MagazineA welcome return to form. [Jan 2004, p.114]
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It's brilliant.
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SpinAn atavistic orgy of recycled riffs and lifelong obsessions. [Sep 2004, p.120]
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The Real New Fall LP is as solid and interesting as anything the group has released in the last ten years.
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Ideally [Fall records will] feature two things: semi-incomprehensible (yet strangely prophetic) ramblings from the eternally tetchy Mark E. Smith, and a band who sound as if their music is perpetually falling down the stairs. The Real New Fall LP delivers on both counts. To much rejoicing.
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As with just about every Fall release ever, the compressed sound and abandonment of melody makes it hard to distinguish one song from the next. As a result, the tauter material is the best.
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Incomprehensible but irresistible.
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UncutGreat by Smith's standards. Practically genius by everybody else's. [Feb 2004, p.74]
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What makes Real New real good is that it's got more of the really good shit.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 16
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Mixed: 1 out of 16
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Negative: 1 out of 16
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LGJan 22, 2005
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DavidGOct 20, 2004Their best in over a decade, at least -- a rejuvenated band hitting another prime.
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mattsSep 27, 2004words can't do justice to the greatness of this album credit. i shall paint it.