Imperial Wax Solvent, Album reviews

The new album from The Fall Gruppe is an exciting confection indeed. As Conway said, there's no filler here, and every tunes a good 'un. After the average FHR and rather poor RPTLC, IWS is a very welcome return to form.

1/ Alton Towers: A meandering jazz/prog workout opens the album. Based around a descending bassline, MES regales us with tales of the spawn of JLO. Or something. Great way to start anyway.

2/ Wolf Kidult Man: Utterly bloody fantastic. MES's vocal reminds me of 1984's WAFWOTF. He sounds young and fresh here and the tune rocks out. Sublime. But at 3:03, too short!!!

3/ 50 Year Old Man: Almost 12 mins of it and not 1 second wasted. A song in 4 parts, it kicks off with a familiar stomp. After a while it goes into a brilliant Banjo solo section, then into jazz prog teritory again. Finishing off with a return to a more classic rock form it takes us on a full journey of what the current band has to offer. Which seems to be quite a lot!

4/ I've Been Duped: A guest vocal from Eleni on this one. A straightforward rock track for the most part it finishes with some weird edits and cuts in classic Fall style. short and sweet.

5/ Strange Town: Cover of a Groundhogs track, this features a slowed down rockabilly rhythm track with some keyboard layers and Scanlonesque guitar work. Strangely reminicent of 'Bourgeouis Town' off of AYAMW to this listener but much evolved from that stripped back cover version. Mark's showing us his influences here. 'The Pink Eyeball Is Spewed Out'. Indeed.

6/ Taurig: Bizarre little almost-an-instrumental, heavy on analogue synth sounds against a shuffling backbeat. There are some almost whispered, practically inaudible words in the 2nd half. Its fun.

7/ Can Can Summer: Starts off normally enough, sounding a lot like something off of MCR, the tune quickly changes completely into what can best be described as 'The Fall do Beach Boys'. Mark tells us about his Boss. Excellent backing vocals from various members of the band. The tune changes again for a few seconds into an electronic workout worthy of Kraftwerk but then its back to the beach Boys again. Inventive and curiously addictive.

8/ Tommy Shooter: A great riff, ripped off from lord knows where but it's very recognisable. "Chickens coming home..... to sit on your shoulder bone". What a lyric. Another great jump around track that will have you turning the amps up to neighbour annoying levels without a thought. Not sure about the poodle references though..!

9/ Latch Key Kid: Long intro, then a fast shuffle kicks in with a nice snarling bassline in fine Hanley style. Nice keyboards again from Eleni. Mark sings this one in a semi-falsetto with an almost whistful tone.

10/ Is This New: Great stop-start tune with a cute keyboard sound, Mark tells us how he was provoked and was not in accord with any known law. There are what sounds like sampled trumpets on this one..... Too short really but really good stuff!

11/ Senior Twilight Stock Replacer: Quite different musically from the song that has been played live for the last couple of years, it has evolved a proper vocal at last. Also has grown some nice textured slower sections between the shouts of Senior! Twilight! Stock Replacer! Again it reminds me of MCR era Fall but not in any bad way.

12/ Exploding Chimney: "I got rat poison in my vicinity". Quite. A wicked fast riff with distorted keyboard sweeps... it's almost Techno. Finishes abruptly, like 'And This Day' did on HEX all those years ago. Wonderful way to finish.

So what about it then? Its a corker. 9/10 from me. it's not the new HEX or TNSG, but its not far off. And its so much better than RPTLC its not true. Mark has pulled the bird out of the hat again folks, in the most emphatic way possible.

SOUNDS
FUCKIN'
FANTASTIC!

ive been duped isnt as good as i had hoped

will this seepage be angry making and incur some kind of "real new wax solvent"?

I think he says "J. Loaded Brown. James Brown was editor of Loaded magazine during the lad culture boom of the mid 90s. He also published what is probably the worst "interview" MES shall ever give, IIRC. It was sad to read.


We shoudl probably curtail any further comment on the LP till we've paid for it. Seems only fair.

But it is fucking ace

I don't really see why. It happens to pretty much all LP's nowadays and it's not like we won't all be buying it anyway. I'll personally be buying it twice - CD & Vinyl. All we are doing here is getting the word out about how bloody fantastic it is and what an essential purchase it's going to be. Any people wavering about getting it may be persuaded by our comments so if anything, we're increasing sales!

Also, there's no link anywhere to a copy of the album nor would I give out such information. If you want it, it's out there and any motivated individual with half a brain will have no trouble finding it.

Thinking back to COTC and how that was pulled, I doubt Mark would do the same again. I think he wanted to rework the album anyway. If this new leak does persuade him to repeat history then so be it, but thats nothing to do with my review of the album here.

I think Buy Curious has got the description right here, just had my first listen but the only criticism I have is the inclusion of another cover song when Smith and the new new new new new new new new new new Fall have come up with 11 perfectly good songs of their own.

Talking of CotC, this sounds like another great comeback after a couple of years of line-up changes & inconsistant albums, the main difference is that CotC sounds too 'pop' - clean, & restrained in comparison.

I hope that it has retained the lovely bass riff

I'm dying to hear that on a studio recording.

I think he says "J. Loaded Brown. James Brown was editor of Loaded magazine during the lad culture boom of the mid 90s. He also published what is probably the worst "interview" MES shall ever give, IIRC. It was sad to read.


We shoudl probably curtail any further comment on the LP till we've paid for it. Seems only fair.

But it is fucking ace

Its oK for the big publishers to write reviews before release though

Its mandatory these days isn't it?

keep in mind the naysayers have not been heard from yet.

they are still out kicking the wall.

Theory: 50 year old man is a chronological musical uhhh...tone poem, with the various sections representing different eras the Fall's history. This would of course mean that the banjo bit is the Brix Years.

i say nay

it's a dirge on mp3

can't wait for the 180g of imperial wax, then it'll be the best return to form since the last one.

seriously, is it getting a vinyl release?

I agree - there's barely any stereo separation on most tracks and it's quite obviously missing both top and bottom end.

Here's hoping the LP pressing is good this time unlike the last two that deteriorated just by looking at them.

on the download ive got strange town is kinda poor quality and keeps cutting out a bit, really annoying. im super skint right now and if i had a decent download i dont think id buy the album until ive got money but im gonna have to now

I wonder if Strange Town is meant to be like that, as it is the only one which suffers in this way?

Come off it, I got FHR on black vinyl and it is a great pressing

would you be very cross if the proper release sounds exactly the same?

did showbiz work on the real new fall lp? the production for IWS is very similar, particularly on the drums, kind of tinny sounding but with proper bite. a very happy medium between the muffled drums of RPTLC and the cheesy 'big' sounding drums on Fall heads roll.

Its early days yet, but I'd say this album surpasses the real new fall lp, its got the production but is far more interesting in terms of arrangements and playing. 50 year old man sounds like about seven different takes of the same song spliced together, shades of Ibis Afro Man.

The lyrics are very interesting, still digesting them at the moment, tommy shooter stands out as an immediate classic. More importantly the delivery is great, reminiscent of the 2003 peel sessions.

Its just an LP bustling with creativity and you can see a lot of craft has gone into it.

the best recommendation I can give is that taurig and strange town, which serve as the token MES-less and cover tracks (and usually the low points of the albums), are both brilliant.

would you be very cross if the proper release sounds exactly the same?

i wouldnt be angry, just kind disappointed cos it like blinks out throughout all of strange town

to put it bluntly: there's no "mountain energei" or "blindness" on it, but more than enough enough to make you sit up and take notice without a knockout punch landed by the end of the record, which is an improvement. certainly consistent, though a little too punishing for a brix/pre-brix era neophyte (even perverted by language had "I feel voxish") but not as monotonous as RPTLC got after repeated listens.

current favorite's "tommy shooter" - although not as dynamic and flangingly wild as it is live, it's got incredibly good lyrics and I'm willing to bet it's this album's "scenario" in that he plucked a few lines/the concept somewhere. at the very least it's a "what about us?"-type number, inspired by real events.

"taurig" is really cool, "senior twilight stock replacer" is the unfortunate recipient of the "M.E. Smith 'Systematic Abuse' Memorial Award" in the sense that it's probably the first song they recorded and the production clips a very cool song's wings-it sounds very tentative on record, and there's not a screen on his mic, so the siblant sounds are piercing in a poorly-produced way.

"can can summer" is catchy in a very clever way, really gets under your skin, as is "is this new." "50 year old man" is two concepts too long while "wolf kidult" and "i've been duped" are one too short.

that's about it for first thoughts.

I will abstain from reviewing until I have the (already paid for) cd in my hand.

Just gotta say one thing though: Taurig!

Very true, and I think it's an uncompromising and more experimental album than Reformation which I rate. However, it's experimental in the sense the results are worthwhile rather than a self-indulgent/filler way - there is no 'Das Boot' on here thankfully. 50 Year Old Man sounds to me like a suitable follow up to the excellent Ibis Afro Man ( I know not everyone shares this view of IAM)

There is a great deal of energy on this record which is a unique self-contained experience not seen since RNFLP - no filler and a different sound/production to it's predecessors. It also places releases in a new context - AYRMW, RNFLP, FHR, RPTLC and IWX. Rather than an artistic decline or stalling which some suggested after RPTLC, taken together, this is an artistically successful and diverse canon of work.

Imperial Wax Solvent is to RPTLC as the Real New Fall LP is to AYAMW.


I'm glad that there isnt a blindness or mountain energie on there, I never wanted to see the fall turning into the one riff drone jam thing, the idea that's what they are as a band is a fallacy, theres much more subtlety to them. Mountain Energie was only three minutes long on the album, when they try the jam thing on the album it doesn't work as RPTLC demonstrated. Only Perverted By Language pulled it off and thats because you had five eccentric musicians at the peak of their powers. Darker My Love as proficient as they are aren't scanlon/hanley/burns/hanley.

Have only heard Wolf Kidult man off the album. I'm really excited, and am going to save that excitement until the album is released officially.

SO glad this is looking like its better than RPTLC.

It's inferior product, man.

It's sonically very similar to the last album, but certainly superior. There's some hellish lazy songwriting there - tossed-off riffs with rubbish lyrics (not that we turn to the Fall for songwriting exactly, but you catch my meaning), but at least a couple of real corkers.

'Taurig' sounds like an outtake from Zuckerzeit and is fantastic. I'd like to know who's behind this. Eleni?

'Can Can Summer' is ripped off a late-period Can funk jam - the scratchy damped rhythm guitar and the rising/falling bass line. There's film of the performance somewhere, the line-up without Holger. Great stuff, tho'.

'Is This New' is fucking excellent - the first time I've been really, really, really excited about a new Fall song since 'Sparta'. The real gem here, for me.

'Wolf Kidult Man' is growing on me, as are a couple of others.

Not as good as Fall Heads Roll, better than Reformation and Are You Are..., I'd say.