Re: User Pick #88: The Fall Complete Peel Sessions [Skinny]

Skinny — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 18:28:24 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 06/22/2014 22:28

I feel sort of conflicted about having this on my chart, as it's not an album I ever have or will listen to from beginning to end in one sitting, which is sort of the point with albums. They're something you put on for 45 minutes, or 80 minutes, or however long, and lose yourself in, little journeys you take for a small portion of your day, creators of moods and wonderful little distractions. I don't think I physically could concentrate on an album for seven hours. Hell, The Fall are one of my favourite bands of all-time, and yet the idea of listening to nothing but them for seven hours straight makes me feel itchy. And so I never intend to put this on from start to finish. Therefore it doesn't really fulfill the requirements of an album. I can't put it on and finish satisfied that I've been on a trip of sorts, whereby there is any sort of beginning, middle or end. I barely ever even listen to discs five or six, even though they are both excellent. Sometimes I don't even finish a whole disc, instead just picking out a session that I particularly like (disc two's March '83 session, for example, with the definitive version of Perverted By Language's 'Garden' and a ripsnorting rendition of 'Eat Y'self Fitter', or disc three's May '85 session, which finds the band bringing a renewed clarity and intensity to some of This Nation's Saving Grace's most memorable tracks, or disc four's March '91 session, with its surprisingly tasteful use of a fiddle (a fiddle!)), like one might dip into a poetry anthology or a finger-buffet. But, despite all of this (or, perhaps, because of it), The Complete Peel Sessions is the best Fall release. Some of their very best songs are missing (no 'Crap Rap' or 'Frightened', no 'Totally Wired', no 'The Classical', no 'I Am Damo Suzuki'), as are some of their best years (there's almost two years missing between a session in November '78 and September '80, during which time they underwent massive changes and wrote some excellent songs, which unfortunately go undocumented here, whilst the same problem again occurs between mid '81 and '83), but this is the perfect snapshot of a band who, I'm sure you're tired of hearing, were "always different, always the same". Whether their sound was cheap and tinny, backed by toy synths and tinpot drums, or dense to the point of being claustrophobic, they always managed to maintain the sense that their sharp angles and wiry edges were on the verge of collapse, ever about to unspool into nothing more than a puddle of mildly annoying feedback and a mentally unstable drunkard shouting at clouds. That they held it together in spite of this, that they managed to meld their Krautrock and garage influences into something that even now refuses to sound dated, that Mark E. Smith's ramblings turned out to contain flashes of acerbic, genius wit and stunningly frank commentary on the state of the world with an almost alarming frequency - this is all proof of the band's greatness, and all of those qualities are on display in abundance over the course of these six discs. So, this album is currently very near the top of my chart. I'll never listen to it from start to finish. But if you only ever get one Fall record, make it this one.

Re: User Pick #88: The Fall Complete Peel Sessions [Skinny]

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 16:18:34 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/22/2014 20:18

Haven't heard this yet, but I love The Fall, so I don't doubt its greatness. Much respect to Peel for helping them succeed.

User Pick #88: The Fall Complete Peel Sessions [Skinny]

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 16:17:17 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/22/2014 20:17

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004 by The Fall

Chart: Top 20 Greatest Music Albums by Skinny
Rank on User's Chart: 2
Year: 2005
Rank on BEA Overall: 8,057
Average Rating: 75/100
Summary Info: Six disks (seven hours) of The Fall playing for John Peel's radio show. Gives a full profile of their career up to Peel's death in 2004.

Skinny wrote:

The same orchestrated mess you always were, whatever your surroundings. Intimidating new faces in the pub because who the fuck are those cunts anyway. A Molotov cocktail, made with lighter fluid, cheap Scotch, and middle-class guilt. Thrown into your own living room.

Details on the implementation and chart selection process of "User Pick of the Day" can be found here and here, respectively. A chart documenting the previous picks can be found here.

Best Ever Albums

Re: User Pick #88: The Fall Complete Peel Sessions [Skinny]

Re: User Pick #88: The Fall Complete Peel Sessions [Skinny]

User Pick #88: The Fall Complete Peel Sessions [Skinny]