Disco de The Fall: “15 Ways to Leave Your Man”

There is no category for The Fall. They are their own category. I don't think anybody really cares whether some record company dumped them or whether it's yet another live album. It's The Fall. This live album definitely is a must for any fan. It contains some classics and some more recent songs. The performance is amazingly tough and powerful and Mark E. Smith's rants come across very well. I don't like Brix' singing (I never liked it) and that other guy who's shouting some stuff is also annoying but it's The Fall, man! I always liked their live stuff somewhat better than their studio stuff and this CD is one of the best! The live version of "Das Vulture..." alone is worth the money.

I can't agree with the affirmative tone of the previous review - to my ears this is a pretty grim document of Mark E Smith's difficult years. Whatever was troubling him (see Simon Ford's book for details of his bizarre behavior) it inevitably fed into his live performances, and this disc - edited together from two very different source tapes (two different gigs, perhaps?) - contains too many numbers where Mark either can't remember enough of the words, or just can't be bothered, he doesn't want to be on stage anyway. The much-maligned vocals of Mike Bennett are actually the only thing to invigorate `Chiselers' (or whatever you call it), `Pearl City' and 'LA'. Brix of course does the same for `Darling' and `Feeling Numb' (but it's still a mess, not as good as the In The City version).

It has its good moments - like `Reckoning' and `Hey Student' - but this disc is only worth picking up as part of the `Time Enough At Last' package, and you need to be a total Fall fanatic to appreciate that!