THE FALL Ersatz GB CD

Lists are for geeks, but since we’re talking about a new Fall release, let’s give it a shot. In order, my favorites are: Hex Enduction Hour, This Nation’s Saving Grace, Live at the Witch Trials, Levitate and Slates.

Then you have the songs that are singles or jump off of otherwise routine full-lengths: “Blindness,” “Rowche Rumble,” “50 Year Old Man” the cover of “White Lightening.”  So it’s a pained listen to Ersatz GB in that I crave some moment, however fleeting, and it’s hard to find.

“Greenway” is a big riff song, 4 minutes of it. It’s the only song in the batch that catches me off guard in its volume, but otherwise, I can’t think of it as anything more than an anomaly.

Mark E. Smith’s vision is the ultimate parody of the Big Music Machine, although he’s going backward. While major bands release an album every three or four years, The Fall continues to be bent on putting everything out there, sheer volume trumping quality.

With that in mind, I give them a tip; EPs.

Slates, noted above as one of the band’s best, was an idea that was rarely revisited. Ersatz might have worked as a three-song release. Instead, it’s filler complemented by a couple worthy things. The muse strikes with the reliability of a dealer, but when it doesn’t arrive, don’t fake it.  [Cherry Red]

-Miller

AMAZON