The Fall in the sandbox

This could also be submitted to the Pitchfork r dum thread:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/reviews/albums/16081-the-fall-ersatz-gb/

Prindle gets it right (except it's album 29):
http://www.markprindle.com/falla.htm#ersatz

"Ersatz" is really growing on me, as do most Fall albums. A clunker or two but basically the last 3 albums, all with the same lineup, are really strong.

Hey that P4k review was written by former ILXor Douglas Wolk. He wrote an awesome piece on the Peel Sessions box a few years back for The Believer!

Just because Wolk wrote it, and because I usually like what he has to say, doesn't mean I have to agree with him here. I definitely think this one is a second-tier Fall album and a bit of a disappointment compared to the others over the past 10 years, he's excessively harsh imho.

I know Pitchfork editorial conspiracy theories are dangerous terrain, but there is a part of me that wonders if they throw exceedingly low scores at the lesser albums of sacred cows just to sort of prove they can. Similar case in point was the Sonic Youth album they gave a 0.0 to, it wasn't nearly that awful.

i haven't heard it yet but the idea that anything the Fall does is worth a 2.2 is ridiculous.

^^^

by the way, does anyone know if the US vinyl of this will have extra tracks like the last one did?

I thought it was quite a good review. I haven't made my mind up about the album by any means - even though I don't think it's great it does seem to have 'that small fraction sometimes the most important' that other recent albums have lacked.

But i think he's right to explore how The Fall might sound bad bad, rather than just oppositional bad ('bad unafeared art'). And I think he's right to look at the separation of Smith and the musicians, although actually I disagree that, if there is a problem on EGB, it's with the music.

The issue of song lyrics drifting around on any song does seem to take some of the edge off The Fall's recent stuff. That may be the point, but it does tend towards the 'Smith over the top of some music' feeling, and that I find difficult to reconcile with my favourite Fall material.

I think he's wrong when he gets specific with the songs tho - all of which in way or another I like, other than Mask Search perhaps (although the curious coughing/fit sounds at the end are appealing).

I dunno, Room to Live is probably the worst Fall album I've heard, and even that seems pretty good

we did a "worst Fall album" on regular ILX and I think Reformation TLC won that.

Fizzles otm, I do think there were some interesting arguments brought up wrt the overall approach of what "bad Fall" means, but he was so wrong when it came to the album in question.

Meh. I think he was way harsh, to the point where a weird sort of bitterness begins to creep into the tone (15000th album? Really?). But I gotta admit: when he called EGB a parody of what the Fall has been doing for the last few years, he comes p near to my initial gut response to the album...

But 2.2 is way offtm