Disco de The Fall: “Slates/A Part of America Therein, 1981”

If you have to own one Fall record, this is the record to have; *Hex Enduction Hour* has its moments, but that's the point, and "Brixish" has her moments, but that's another point. Do you have to own a Fall record? Well, do you have to own this for *Slates* alone? Are you under 40? Do you think you're both cool and kinda literary? Do you not have very much money? I'm not kidding; Mark E. Smith is good for you and not the other way around, and you can be lots and lots of people because he's really not paying attention; I suppose we are to work on our relation to self, which need not be very good but have its moments.

"Leave the Capitol" is one of its moments, the other "relations" are waystations of a none-too-unbearable suffering (the exertions and perplexions of real life), and the live set is a nice way to relax (Mark's kazoo sounds great). Has there ever been another record like *Slates*? There have been a lot of records like *Slates*, but if almost tens of thousands of people have been able to work up an enthusiasm for this maybe that's not such a big problem -- i.e., perhaps the palpably great literary conscience of Britain's last twenty years should be divested of ticks and "allowed" into the "passing shows" he in fact partially owns. A story about stories, specifically stories not told about English literature, from a don of the streetcorner and associates on "permanent holiday" -- and no, that one was not so shaggy.