The Wonderful And Frightening World Of... THE FALL (Omnibus Edition)
Released 25 October 2010
This has now SOLD OUT in the UK
Originally released in 1984, The Wonderful And Frightening World Of The Fall was the band’s eighth studio album and their first for Beggars Banquet. This release chronicles that year; from the full integration of Brix Smith into the group, the introduction of John Leckie as the recording producer, the BBC sessions, live shows, changes in the line-up and the rise of a wider appreciation for The Fall’s music.
The first CD edition (issued in 1988) followed the extended track sequence of the cassette but for this Omnibus Edition the album has been re-mastered from the studio analogue tapes and restored to its original nine song format with all additional tracks on disc 2.
Disc 3 gathers all the relevant BBC sessions: not only a predictable John Peel session recorded in December 1983 (the earliest recordings of TWAFWOTF material) but also previously unreleased sessions from David Jensen and Janice Long as well as a ‘Saturday Live’ recording.
Disc 4 is a live recording made by VPRO radio at Pandora’s Music Box festival in The Netherlands and is remarkably perky considering The Fall took to the stage for their headline set at 3.15am on a Sunday morning.
Compiled for fans, the Omnibus Editions are intended to expand and illuminate the development of specific albums, bringing together all the relevant single releases with previously unreleased studio, session or live recordings. Omnibus Editions are presented as limited edition box sets and include CD’s in the Japanese-style paper sleeves, reproducing the original vinyl cover art, with a 48 page book. Despite the de-luxe packaging the sets are great value and priced to retail below £20.
The Fall made the leap to a semi-major label – Beggars Banquet – with The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall, hooking up with noted producer John Leckie to create another smart, varied album. Contemporaneous with the slightly friendlier “Oh! Brother” and “C.R.E.E.P.” singles without actually including them, Wonderful and Frightening World makes few concessions to the larger market – every potential hook seemed spiked with the band’s usual rough take-it-or-leave-it stance. Mark E. Smith’s audible, tape-distorting spit on the descending chord blast of “Elves” – already spiked with enough vocal craziness as it is – gives a sense of where the album as a whole aims. Brix Smith co-writes about half the tracks, creating a strong partnership with many highlights. It may start with a semi-low-key chant, but when “Lay of the Land” fully kicks in, it does just that, Craig Scanlon in particular pouring on the feedback at the end over the clattering din. Smith sounds as coruscating and side-splittingly hilarious as ever, depicting modern Britain with an eye for the absurdities and failures (and crucially, no empathy – it’s all about a gimlet eye projected at everyone and everything). Two further standouts appear on the second half – “Slang King,” a snarling portrayal of a cool-in-his-mind dude and his increasingly pathetic life, and the concluding “Disney’s Dream Debased.” Though unquestionably the most conventionally attractive tune on the album, ringing guitars and all, Smith’s lyrics portray a Disneyland scenario in hell, however softly delivered. Elsewhere, Gavin Friday from the Virgin Prunes takes a bow with his own unmistakable, spindly vocals on the trebly Krautrock chug of “Copped It” and the slightly more brute rhythm of “Stephen Song.”
41/2 out of 5 stars – Ned Raggett – All Media Guide
CD1 The Wonderful And frightening World Of… THE FALL
Lay Of The Land
2 By 4
Copped It
Elves
Slang King
Bug Day
Stephen Song
Craigness
Disney’s Dream Debased
CD2 SINGLES and ROUGH MIXES
Oh! Brother
God-Box
O! Brother
c.r.e.e.p.
Pat – Trip Dispenser
C.R.E.E.P.
New Fiend (2 By 4) *
No Bulbs 3 (Unedited Version) *
Slang King 2
Draygo’s Guilt
Clear Off!
No Bulbs
Lay Of The Land (Rough Mix) *
Pat – Trip Dispenser (Rough Mix) *
New Fiend (Rough Mix) *
Slang King (Edits Version 1) *
CD3 BBC SESSIONS
Creep (Peel session)
Pat – Trip Dispenser (Peel session)
2 By 4 (Peel session)
Words Of Expectation (Peel session)
God Box (Jensen session) *
Lay Of The Land (Jensen session) *
Oh Brother (Jensen session) *
Creep (Jensen session) *
No Bulbs (Long session) *
Draygo’s Guilt (Long session) *
Stephen Song (Long session) *
Slang King (Long session) *
Copped It (Saturday Live) *
Elves (Saturday Live) *
Fortress / Marquis Cha Cha (Saturday Live) *
CD4 Live at Pandora’s Music Box Festival *
Lay Of The Land
Craigness
2 By 4
Draygo’s Guilt
No Bulbs
Kicker Conspiracy
Stephen Song
Copped It
Pat – Trip Dispenser
Middle Mass
*PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
REVIEWS
UNCUT December 2010
Q MAGAZINE December 2010
Every fan of music which breathes fire needs this record
BBC Review
And a spot on review from New York’s OTHER MUSIC STORE
THE FALL
The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall – Expanded Edition
(Beggars Banquet)
Preview Songs on Other Music’s Download Store
It’s near impossible to pick a favorite album by the Fall. My most recent ‘new’ favorite has been Dragnet, probably because it took me longest to find an original and thus I’ve spent the least time with it (of course, the record is great too). Then I’ve always loved I Am Kurious Oranj, plus the popular faves Hex Enduction Hour and This Nation’s Saving Grace. That said, the 1-2-3 punch of Room to Live, Perverted by Language and The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall — released in 1982, ’83 and ’84, respectively — is an amazingly exceptional three-album stretch in the group’s long career of making timeless music. If I must choose, however, out of all of my beloved Fall albums, The Wonderful and Frightening World of… remains as my all-time favorite and most-listened to.
The interesting dilemma about this album is that it’s never been properly mastered — I know this first hand from purchasing multiple copies through the years, hoping that the problem was just that I had a worn-out LP, and the original CD versions never cut it either. From a band that never made fidelity a priority, this might seem like arbitrary shop clerk nitpicking, but one listen to this new version, and it is hard to disagree. Beggars Banquet has FINALLY seen it fit to remaster this masterpiece and issue a four-CD “Omnibus Edition,” crammed with outtakes, demos, live stuff etc., capturing the power and glory of the original recordings, and adding everything and more.
First thing you need to know, the remastering job is exactly what it should be: boosted but not tampered with. There’s a lot going on in this record, and it’s a shambolic, glorious din. But the previous, weak mastering was muddled, and this has been remedied; layers are more prominent, high end is more distinct, and bass is more pronounced. And the extra tracks (un-edited versions, alternate takes, rough mixes and all the B-sides that should have just been album tracks) are actually different and interesting enough to keep your finger away from the fast-forward button that usually gets so much use when you play these expanded CD sets.
The special thing about this record is how loose and perfect the songs are. Perfectly jolly, catchy, un-hurried and f**ked up in a way that doesn’t quite happen on any other Fall record. Half these tracks were co-written by Mark E. Smith’s then-girlfriend Brix, and maybe this creative foil was just what the doctor ordered — not as ‘speedy’ as Perverted…, not as dark and desolate as Hex…, not as propulsive as Room to Live. There’s a palpable, yet even-keeled lysergic buzz running through this record; perhaps guest vocalist Gavin Friday from Virgin Prunes brought the windowpane to the studio sessions. It’s somehow perfectly jolly, catchy, loose, random and f**ked. From the ritualistic opening of “Lay of the Land” to the snappy “2×4,” the lurching, then chiming “Slang King,” the haunted dub of “Bug Day” and the perfectly endless mid-tempo gallop of “Stephen Song,” this is one of the Fall albums that defies formula; almost every song seems to have just fallen (ha) out of the ether, perfectly formed. This is the album that taught me that the Fall can do no wrong. 10 out of 10, definitely one of the best and most essential reissues of the year. [SM]
Order CD by Texting “omcdfallwonderful” to 767825