''Fall Heads Roll'' is the 24th studio album by English
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
group
the Fall, released in 2005. Although well-received by critics, it didn't reach the top 100 of the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
, and was the last album released by the band prior to major personnel changes.
Background, recording, and release
The album was recorded at
Lisa Stansfield
Lisa Jane Stansfield (born 11 April 1966) is an English singer, songwriter, and actress. Her career began in 1980 when she won the singing competition ''Search for a Star''. After appearances in various television shows and releasing her first ...
's Gracieland Studios in
Rochdale
Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...
, UK and at Gigantic Studios in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
In a March 2005 interview with ''Kitchen Sink'' magazine prior to the album's release, singer
Mark E. Smith
Mark Edward Smith (5 March 1957 – 24 January 2018) was an English singer, who was the lead singer, lyricist and only constant member of the post-punk group the Fall. Smith formed the band after attending the June 1976 Sex Pistols gig at the ...
mentioned ''Heads Are Rolling'' and ''If You Assume'' as two possible titles.
The album includes a cover version of
the Move's "
I Can Hear the Grass Grow
"I Can Hear the Grass Grow " is the second single by the Move, written by Roy Wood. The song was first released on 31 March 1967, and reached number 5 in the UK Singles Chart on 10 May 1967, staying for ten weeks in the charts. "I Can Hear the Gr ...
", and "What About Us?", a song written from the point of view of an East German immigrant who berates
Harold Shipman
Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004), known by the public as Doctor Death and to acquaintances as Fred Shipman, was an English general practitioner and serial killer. He is considered to be one of the most prolif ...
for giving
morphine
Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a analgesic, pain medication, and is also commonly used recreational drug, recreationally, or to make ...
to old ladies instead of him.
"Breaking the Rules" evolved from the band's attempts to record "
Walk Like a Man", with lyrics from a song by Bec Walker, an aspiring singer who had been on
work experience
Work may refer to:
* Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community
** Manual labour, physical work done by humans
** House work, housework, or homemaking
** Working animal, an animal tr ...
at Gracieland Studios at the time the album was recorded. The album's closing track, "Trust in Me", features guest lead vocals from Kenny Cummings of the band Shelby, who had first met Smith and Elena Poulou at the Gigantic offices earlier on the day it was recorded, with additional vocal contributions from Phil Schuster of Shelby, and recording engineers Billy Pavone and Simon "Ding" Archer.
[Breckenridge, Donald (2005)]
The Fall: Fall Heads Roll
, '' The Brooklyn Rail'', 1 November 2005. Retrieved 18 February 2018
Although the
Sanctuary
A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...
group had reissued several earlier Fall albums and their
Peel Sessions
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...
box set (on their
Castle Communications
Castle Communications, also known as Castle Music, was a British independent record label and home video distributor founded in 1983 by Terry Shand, Cliff Dane, and Jon Beecher. Its video imprint was called Castle Vision. The label's producti ...
imprint), this was the first album of new Fall material to be released by them, on this occasion appearing on their Slogan label.
The UK version was released on
CD and as limited vinyl pressing of 1,000, and was preceded by a single release of "I Can Hear the Grass Grow". In the US, the album was their second release with
Narnack Records. The US double LP edition of the album contains a different version of the track "Blindness".
"Blindness" was used in a 2007 US television ad campaign for the
Mitsubishi Outlander
The is a mid-size
crossover SUV manufactured by Japanese
automaker Mitsubishi Motors. It was originally known as the when it was introduced in Japan in 2001.
The original Airtrek name was chosen to "describe the vehicle's ability to transpo ...
.
It was the last album with this lineup of the band to be released; A later album was largely completed but left unreleased when Smith parted company with most of the band members.
[Simpson, Dave (2009) ''The Fallen: Life In and Out of Britain's Most Insane Group'', Canongate Books, , p. 289]
Critical reception
The album received generally positive reviews, with a score of 80 at
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
.
Alexis Petridis, reviewing the album for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', gave it a 5-star review, describing it as "of head-turning quality" and stating the "Youwanner" riff "could strip paint".
Joe Tangari, for ''
Pitchfork'', gave it 7.8 out of 10, calling it "a grab-bag of a Fall album with brilliant highs and scattered lows".
''
PopMatters
''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...
Josh Berquist gave it an 8/10 rating, stating "''Fall Heads Roll'' resounds with the same kind of incongruous charm that ingratiated newcomers with ''The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall'' or ''The Unutterable''".
Scott Kara, for the ''
New Zealand Herald'', gave it three stars, viewing it as the Fall "back to their raw, punchy and rocky best".
''
Tiny Mix Tapes
''Tiny Mix Tapes'' (also ''TMT'' or ''tinymixtapes'') is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, a ...
'' gave it 4 out of 5, describing "Blindness" as "an absolute classic". Pascal Bertin, reviewing the album for ''
Les Inrockuptibles'', stated that band had "recycled its own musical formula but manages once again to regenerate it".
[Bertin, Pascal (2005)]
Fall Heads Roll
, '' Les Inrockuptibles'', 30 September 2005. Retrieved 18 February 2018 AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
's David Jeffries gave it 3.5 stars, describing it as "a rocking album that relies heavily on its highlights", which he considered to be "Pacifying Joint", "What About Us", "Blindness", and their cover of "I Can Hear the Grass Grow".
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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reviewer Nick Reynolds viewed Smith's performances on the album as erratic, stating "Sometimes he's as sharp as a needle, sometimes he's incomprehensible.", but viewed "Youwanner" and "Clasp Hands" as classic Fall tracks.
[Reynolds, Nick (2002)]
The Fall Fall Heads Roll Review
, BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
. Retrieved 18 February 2018 Chris Brown, for the ''
Daily Post'' viewed it as not one of the band's best albums.
[Brown, Chris (2005)]
The Fall ''Fall Heads Roll''
, ''Daily Post (Liverpool)
The ''Liverpool Post'' was a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. The newspaper and its website ceased publication on 19 December 2013.
Until 13 January 2012 it was a daily morning newspaper, with the tit ...
'', 16 September 2005.
Track listing
On the back cover of the CD, tracks were printed in the wrong order, and it included an additional insert labelled "The Real New Fall Tracklist" (as a reference to the group's previous album, ''
The Real New Fall LP''), featuring the correct track order.
On th
version of the vinyl released in the UK and Europe "Bo Demmick" is moved from track 9 to track 7, meaning it closes side A, with "Blindness" opening side B.
Personnel
The Fall
*
Mark E. Smith
Mark Edward Smith (5 March 1957 – 24 January 2018) was an English singer, who was the lead singer, lyricist and only constant member of the post-punk group the Fall. Smith formed the band after attending the June 1976 Sex Pistols gig at the ...
–
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
,
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
* Ben Pritchard –
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
* Steve Trafford –
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
, guitar, backing vocals
* Spencer Birtwistle –
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
* Elena Poulou –
keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
, vocals
Additional personnel
* Simon "Ding" Archer – production; bass guitar on "Youwanner" and "Trust In Me",
banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
on "Clasp Hands", vocals on "Trust in Me"
* Billy Pavone – engineer, vocals on "Trust in Me", guitar on "Blindness" (US vinyl version)
* Kenny Cummings – vocals on "Trust in Me"
* Phil Schuster – vocals on "Trust in Me"
* Tim "Gracielands" Baxter – production
* Alex Aldi – engineer
Notes
References
{{Authority control
2005 albums
The Fall (band) albums