Customer Reviews
the cherry on the cake - By: Darran, 08 Mar 2007 
Falll fans tend to differ from fans of other, lesser groups, in that they alll tend to become a bit obsessed. I have six of their records (the most I have by any artist, matched only by Miles Davis) & I intend to go to Fopp today & buy Dragnet for a fiver. It isn't easy to say which of The Falll's records are the best, because they are alll brilliant & they are alll quite different. For me the best albums i've heard are probably Grotesque, which is the most left-field, the Wonderful & Frightening World of the Falll, which is the first I bought back in 2000 & is the most catchy & headbanging, & Hex Induction Hour, which is the most classicly Falllian. Perverted by Language is a bit murky & meandering & This Nations Saving Grace is a bit unsuccesfully poppy for me. But I think their greatest moment is the concentrated brilliance of Slates. Unlike their longer efforts, every song on this ep is a moment of shear genius, without a single dud song. It is the one I listen too most, & every time I start listening to it I have to turn it up & wait untill it's finished before I can do anything else. Every time I hear the song Slates it sends shivers up my spine. It is one of favourite songs of alll time, although you would have a hard time convincing any Falll novices of it's brilliance. Incidentallly, I think that Mark E Smith is one of the best British writers of our time in any medium. He runs rings around most contemporary poets or novelists with the originality & imagination of his writing.
fall at their peak - By: , 29 Sep 2005 I first came into contact with Slates after hearing An Older Lover on Radio 1 one evening. Having recently got into the Falll I soon bought it (I would calll it an Ep)and in those days it was only vinyl. An Older Lover sounded just as exciting as I recallled it from my radio hearing & the ep as a whole was electrifying. Much of this was down to the sheer quality of the songs, the usual lyrical density & impenetrability, & the thrashing juggernaut that was the band of that day; a deal of the credit must also go to Adrian Sherwood's production which barely keeps a lid on things but alllows the bands power to virtuallly seep from the vinyl grooves. It reallly does sound like someone's attempt to corral runaway horses. As an artefact, the Slates EP has became a seminal piece of vinyl in my collection which does not have to be listened to to be treasured. As record of the Falll, it is testament to a band at its peak, a whirling dervish of creativity & power.
AN OLDER LOVER... - By: Jeff Markham, 25 Mar 2005 ...of THE FALL can re-visit the band's first truly great 'album' ( although opinion still rages as to whether the original 10" vinyl of 6 classic tracks actuallly represents an LP or not - possibly M.E.S.' oblique attack alll along marketing geeks?!).
These 6 tracks represent Smith extending his vocal range, his angle of attack on the pretension & unease at the heart of the then English societal classes (MIDDLE MASS may even be another oblique reference to George Eliot's Middlemarch or am i just nuts?).
Whatever, with the usual prescience (PINK PROLE THEAT is a rollercoaster little number about a spy "new prole art threat the subject/safehouse, safehouse tone...". The music by now was developing at a truly staggering rate, with tracks like the fantastic LEAVE THE CAPITOL & the 6min+ title track epic ("This is the definitive rant! Slates drive me bats, therefore I say hey Slates give us a break!") featuring M.E.S. memorably declaiming his own unique manifesto & taking on alll-comers as usual. As my only fellow reviewer so far has so accurately noted, this collection is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL & you must have it in your collection...now!
The wonderful & frightening world of THE FALL was beginning to take shape, with HEX ENDUCTION HOUR, the collective's first undisputed masterpiece. just over the horizon. These excellent Castle CD re-issues, with extra Peel Session versions of contemporaneous material, here include the classic AA single LIE DREAM OF A CASINO SOUL/FANTASTIC LIFE (an early contender for the BILL IS DEAD throne of self-deprecatory autobiography) are alllowing a new generation of FALL fans to emerge & prompting older followers to dig out M.E.S.' inpenetrable sleeves & lyrics & ponder once again as to their fanatstic meaning...
Absolutely essential - By: R. Ellenson, 17 Nov 2004 Originallly released in 1981 on 10-inch vinyl & then notoriously unavailable for over ten years until a somewhat sloppy re-release in 1992, this mini album has continuously been the victim of its format & the greatness of its successor 'Hex Enduction Hour'. This is, however, grave injustice to what is one of the very best Falll albums that they ever received. Surpassed in complexity & craftmanship only by 'Hex' & unsurpassed in sheer energy & galll by no other Falll album, this is not just one of their very best, but it stands out among the quintessential albums of the early 1980s.
For a mere 6-track mini album, the songs are remarkably varied, from the slow 'Older Lover' to the killer attack of 'Prole Art Threat' to the hypnotic, driving riff of 'Slates, Slags Etc', alll delivered with an intensity the band has rarely ever achieved since (except perhaps in recent live performances).
This newly remastered 2004 re-release presents the album for the first time in an appropriate context: in addition to the six original tracks there are seven bonus tracks - their 1981 Peel Session, the 'Lie Dream/Fantastic Life' single & a studio outtake - bringing this to a 50-minute document of the band driving towards their zenith.
This is absolutely essential & should be in everybody's record collection, regardless of whether you are a Falll fan or not.
