Disco de The Fall: “The Frenz Experiment”

Let's make this simple-- Mark E. Smith tells the truth. He tells it to himself, and he delivers it to you. Frenz Experiment succeeds in deliving Smith's sardonic swagger direct from his Burroughs-damaged concience to your content-starving lobes. Whether he has issues with a couple's public display (Get A Hotel), his coterie of friends (see title), or the poor bellhop that got on his bad side, there is little doubt that Smith can make anything seem the stuff of sinister paranoia. There is of course one thing you should understand: Mark E. Smith does not sing, he rants, so if you expect his crooning to do justice to Ray Davies's Victoria, you have another think coming.... Oh, buy this record. It will change your life.

...whereas cd has weedier alternative take of this track

...whereas cd has weedier alternative take of this track

The Fall don't lack for reviews, do they?

I always liked "Oswald Defense Lawyer."

I believe "Athlete Cured" is about sibling rivalry with an arch totalitarian Iron Curtain twist. The East German star athlete is suffering from some mysterious malady until it is discovered that his brother "Gert" is idling his car below the athlete's window for hours on end. Gert is exiled to a labor camp "and never seen again." Hence, the cure.

I've always wondered what "Carry Bag Man" is about. No complaints though.

For me, "The Steak Place" is a great send-up of banal mid-size American towns and brutish American gluttony. I have to assume that it looks pretty bizarre to a Brit, even one from Manchester.

I don't know what "Guest Informant" is about, but it's great.

"Hit the North" is one of the Fall's great disco numbers.

For me, "Bremen Nacht Alternative" is just endless and boring.

"Frenz Experiment" was the second album I ever bought by the Fall, back when it was new in 1987. I now have a big shelf full of them, even including the weak late work (because there's always SOMETHING there, even if it's self-parody).