The Fall Album: “Hex Enduction Hour [Deluxe Edition]”

For me, this is the Fall's high-water mark. It's also one of the all-time greatest albums by any band. Dark, complex, and fascinating. Mark E. Smith's voice sounds great (in a way only MES can), the band is tight with the two-drummer approach, and the production is just crisp enough to let everything come through clean while still keeping it raw and immediate. The bonus tracks are also well-worth it, much better than the usual tossed-off extras that usually come with reissues. I especially enjoy "I'm into CB" (as you may have guessed by my user name). Any fan of the Fall and of rock music in general should buy this right away.

PS - A note to those just getting into the Fall... none of their albums are exactly "accessible", but this one is especially challenging and may not be the best one to start with. For that, I would recommend "Grotesque" (the album released just before this one) or the excellent compilation "50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong." Once you've digested one of those, make "Hex Enduction Hour" your next purchase and be prepared to listen to nothing else for the next couple of months.

This was my first Fall album and it's just superb. Melodic bass drives most of these tracks and, along with Mark E. Smith on vocals, an addictive musical concoction is created. The lyrics are both humourous and thought provoking, and are delivered in Smith's own inimitible style. Tracks that really stick in my mind are Classical, and Hip Priest, phrases from each will stick in your mind and make you spin the CD once more to get another fix.

The bonus CD with live tracks is fantastic as well, I can only recommend this album. If you havent heard The Fall before then this is a good starter album, if you already know The Fall then you'll be aware that this is considered to be one of their best (they have released about 25 studio albums since 1979!). Just buy it!

This is my first venture into Fall music - just purchased it about a month ago - and it is amazing. On first listen, a couple of songs instantly stood out. A few listens later, other songs began to shine. After hearing this cd after 10 listens, all of the songs are killer.

There is so much there - you hear more and more on each listen. I recommend listening to this with either a really good stereo or driving around with a good sound system in your car.

This music reminds me in some way of Beefheart's stuff ... it takes time to fully work it's way into your head and once you "get it" you're hooked. Wonderful, hypnotic stuff .. moments of true bliss .. "The Classical" and "Deer Park" are initial standouts but all the tracks are wonderful once you get to know them.

I may come back to this review in one year and completely re-write it, but as there are only 4 (wtf?) reviews for this cd I wanted to put initial thoughts down. This is one of the coolest albums I have ever heard, and my journey in discovering this band has only just started. I highly recommend buying this. I haven't even gotten into the second disc yet, waiting a bit longer to appreciate the main album ..

It's a real joy to listen to Live at the Witch Trials, Dragnet, Grotesque, Slates, and Hex Enduction Hour, in that order. You see the Fall's evolution and non-evolution quite clearly - a process that continues to this day. Hex combines the muscle of Witch Trials with the lo-fi recording techniques of Dragnet and Grotesque, to great effect. Some of these songs get airborne in a big, lumbering way, thanks to the two drummers. Others have that creepy ooze of many "softer" Fall songs. For new converts, I can't think of a better introduction to the Fall. It's an early enough album that they weren't an institution yet, it does show a leap forward in terms of development, it covers all the bases that they have visited time and again over the years, and per the liner notes, it f*cking rocks! No band has ever done so much with so little. Play loud.

Hard to pin The Fall down of course but this record sounds to me exactly like what I always thought The Clash should have sounded like. It's raw and untidy and full of Smiffy's demented Mancunian word slurry but nearly every track eventually breaks into some kind of spastic and hypnotic cacophony--Winter for example does this effortlessly, twice! And ain't that Deer Park just like Sister Ray sez? Iceland too, amid all the rubble, is a serenely odd wodge of figgy pudding. I tip my woolly cap to that isle of Blighty and its seemingly endless supply of sensational rock and roll.