The ninth of an occasional feature in which I’ll draw your attention to some albums that have been purchased in 2023 and which I reckon are worth highlighting.
There is no denying that The Fall are irreplaceable. Mark E Smith‘s death brought an understandable end to everything, but with so many musicians having been involved with the group over the decades, it was surely only a matter of time before some sort of tribute act popped up.
I approached the idea of HOUSE oF ALL with some trepidation. The initial single had been released via internet channels but had created a ruckus with the family of the late singer stating that they found the idea “extremely offensive and very misleading to the wider audience of Mark E Smith and The Fall”.
mp3: THE HOUSE oF ALL – Harlequin Duke
The fact that the band consists of Martin Brammah, Steve Hanley, Paul Hanley, Simon Wolstencroft and Pete Greenway (and includes a dual-drummer approach, it is inevitable that much of the sound will give off vibes of the band they had all at one point in time, been heavily involved in. But Brammah has long been his own man in terms of songwriting and singing, and his contributions are quite some way removed from those of MES, albeit he does make playful reference in the lyric with ‘maybe our bingo master has returned’.
In short, I didn’t see what all the fuss was really about.
It seems that the problems were all about the use of the phrase “the Fall family continuum” within the promotional/PR blurbs. It was quickly dropped and those involved with HoF got on with getting the record out there and making plans to play live.
The album arrived in the shops in May. It’s the result of three days in a Manchester studio from the first time all five had actually played together. It contains just eight songs, and has a running time of just over 35 minutes, and while it is fair to say that the trademark Steve Hanley basslines are very much to the fore, not forgetting the dual drums of Paul Hanley and ‘Funky Si’, it turned out to be a record that has influences from The Fall rather than being any sort of pastiche or tribute.
I guess that many listeners did initially look out for obvious rip-offs or reference points, but what became clear very quickly was that HOUSE oF ALL was more than worthy of being considered entirely on its own merits. I tried hard not to think of it as a debut album given the combined decades of experience that the five members have, not to mention the many hundreds of albums and singles they have played on, and indeed one of its great strengths is the confident playing from all concerned. It certainly sounds as it was rehearsed professionally to within an inch of its life, rather than coming together over such a short and intense period of time.
The Bay City Pistols??? Utter genius. And one of the catchiest sing-a-long songs I’ve heard in decades.
Highly recommended.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 