I love the Fall, some of their later records have gone by the wayside for me (they are outrageously prolific - and like Captain Beefheart - largely a vocalist songwriter surrounded by a variety of musicians).
I got my hands on slates at about the same time I wasn't graduating High School. My friends and I studied it meticulously, like all Fall albums (there's sometimes more just on the liner notes than many other bands have in their entire records!) This originally was a 10" vinyl LP and looked GREAT. The six songs had 4 downright poppy and unforgettable hooks in them - and the lengthy ponderous "slates" was - while droning on and on like a Delta blues piece, full of interesting verbosity from Smith.
This release is a gem - as it's saddled with some great extras - to fill out the CD length and allow for longer playing. The original release was just the first six tracks - ending with the fabulous "leave the capital".
"Fit and Working Again" was damned near anthemic for me at 18 - and even now evokes a kind of material excitement and madness of growing up.
"Older Lover" is brilliant and promising as well.
They were never really to sound like this again - and like many great things - a kind of recorded snapshot of musical and social history.
I hear these days that Smith is mostly an onstage drunk surrounded by musicians half his age who wouldn't even know Slates... but, that's another story that includes a fist fight from the boney old man with his former band mates... Ah! Rock stars! Geoffrey.R.Balme
I got my hands on slates at about the same time I wasn't graduating High School. My friends and I studied it meticulously, like all Fall albums (there's sometimes more just on the liner notes than many other bands have in their entire records!) This originally was a 10" vinyl LP and looked GREAT. The six songs had 4 downright poppy and unforgettable hooks in them - and the lengthy ponderous "slates" was - while droning on and on like a Delta blues piece, full of interesting verbosity from Smith.
This release is a gem - as it's saddled with some great extras - to fill out the CD length and allow for longer playing. The original release was just the first six tracks - ending with the fabulous "leave the capital".
"Fit and Working Again" was damned near anthemic for me at 18 - and even now evokes a kind of material excitement and madness of growing up.
"Older Lover" is brilliant and promising as well.
They were never really to sound like this again - and like many great things - a kind of recorded snapshot of musical and social history.
I hear these days that Smith is mostly an onstage drunk surrounded by musicians half his age who wouldn't even know Slates... but, that's another story that includes a fist fight from the boney old man with his former band mates... Ah! Rock stars! Geoffrey.R.Balme
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