There was talk on the previous board that the mixes on the Cerebral Caustic cassette were different to the CD. Action Records very kindly sent me the tape to check it out. The mixes are identical to the CD. :(

After listening very closely to the album on headphones swapping backwards and forwards between versions, I've reinforced my view that it isn't a very good album. The early songs are OK, but it fizzes out before the half way mark and the later material is extremely weak musically and lyrically - That Hugh McSheepshagger thing is plain embarrassing and should have been left on the editing room floor. The drums and bass are poorly recorded and the bass in particular is way too low in the mix. And the vocal processing used on quite a few tracks is really bloody irritating.

Anyway, thanks again to Gordon at Action. :)

Oh, I didn't think the drum sound was that bad. But still, it isn't a very good album. While I understand that Mark needed to get back to a more garagey sound and make things less predictable, the songwriting is almost non-existent. Usually a Fall song with duff, predictable music is saved by MES's lyrics or vocals, but no amount of processing and ad-libs can hide it this time. From the lyrics, it was plainly obvious that Mark was rather depressed at the time.

Light User is on a different planet to CC. I mean, some of it is OK, but it's a bit like Shiftwork in that you can put it on and it passes right through you.

I still think it's a solid album, I like the structure. It's only 40 minutes, which makes it easily one of the shortest 90's Fall albums (Marshall Suite too), so it doesn't linger on too long. I like the first 4 songs a lot, then it gets boring and too predictable, and just when you think you have the entire album figured out, the last 15 minutes are extremely experimental and out of left field. For the record, the last two songs are my favorite "piss takes" of the Fall's catalogue (not that they have much competition).

Might as well do a track-by-track review...

The Joke: Good opener, but lacks something (like most of the album). Quite energetic.
Don't Call Me Darling: Annoying Brix vocals, pedestrian tune, but I'm quite drawn to its miserableness. And Brix manages to sound slightly cool at the end shouting "Don't. Call. Me. Darrrrling".
Rainmaster: Insubstantial and weedy. Next.
Feeling Numb: I like this track. Mark being miserable again. Tch.
Pearl City: Fall by numbers. No reason to listen more than once.
Life Just Bounces: It helps that I like this song in whatever form. Funny ad-libs. But. It. Lacks. Something.
I'm Not Satisfied: Mark being miserable. Again. "Moan, fuck you, I'll go off and kill myself etc".
The Aphid: It's The Joke! But less interesting!
Bonkers At Phoenix: An actual great track. Very well done indeed.
One Day: Smashing indie break-up song, or something. Goes unnoticed because it's at the end of a mediocre album.
Northwest Fashion Show: No reason for this track to exist. The only good bit is the Hanley jibe at the end.
Pine Leaves: What? Those keyboards are absolutely fucking horrible (but kinda fascinating in a cheap glitz way). Mark, keeping in line with the rest of the album, sounds so bloody miserable, so bored of being in a band. Leaves a bad taste.

Great, I've used the word "miserable" rather too much in that review. I hope that says more about Cerebral Caustic than it does about my vocabulary. Still, I commend MES for managing to be so bummed out at the time of Britpop and 'Cool Britannia', whatever that was. Didn't notice it, I was probably too busy playing on my SNES.

This is the album that got me re-interested in The Fall after 5 years of brushing them off... the negativity of the posters on the site towards this LP is baffling :confused: , and my enthusiasm of it is sure to discredit me, but tough!

The Joke -- A long-awaited return of actual rock. No dance-camp-prissiness here. None of that unlistenable Code:Selfish synthetic sterility here. Scratchy, crunchy textures... Fun, Actually entertaining.
Don't Call Me Darling -- This should have been a huge hit - the dynamic between Mark & Brix is unparalleled in POP. Damn good pop. (exists, you know) Ironically ineffective (unconvincing) chorus - nice touch (this is why it works)
Rainmaster -- I always imagine Michael Jackson covering this song. From that perspective, this seems dangerous.
Feeling Numb -- weakest track, mainly because it reminds me of the commercial side of The Clash. But Mom's on Prozac, reminds me to call her.
Pearl City -- totally typical Fall, THAT'S WHY IT'S SO GREAT. Duh.
Life Just Bounces -- that murky bombastic touch that just oozes technique - what The Fall are best at - I just dive into this one.
I'm Not Satisfied -- a Zappa cover. MES's sneering detachment actually makes a Zappa song about being negative WORK.
The Aphid -- a campy approach to the 60's tradition of songs about dances, with surreal Burroughs-ish touch. Brilliant.
Bonkers in Phoenix -- the perfectly weird piece. I don't know what to say. Just amazing stuff.
One Day -- my own private break-up song. Frenetic energy. Strange hearing MES singing these words. Again, a matter of contradiction. God this is great people.
Nothwest Fashion Show -- this was the track they played on the radio that made me buy the album. Great cut-ups, funky beat, oh so post-modern. MES thinking ahead of most of his fans again.... Funny... "modelling the bald look..."
Pine Leaves -- nice closer, sounds profound but probably isn't.

So yeah, just the whole album has a sound of effortless textured garage-punk-pop that I love... so be nice.

I used to tape all tracks off it ....except pine leaves [which was too boring for me] , bonkers in pheonix and nwfs [cos they messed up me tape]....i would have it as car music....cos i thought it was easy to listen to .....lyrically it is a boring album.....but it reminds me a lot of the 80s stuff....so i would mix these tracks on a tape with 80s stuff for a very accessible car tape of the fall............rainmaster is one of my favourite songs....just like it..not for any one reason ...just overall

I think there might be a Philip K. Dick reference in "The Aphid". In "A Scanner Darkly," there's a character who sees aphids in his living room and scans the carpet for them, putting them into a jar. I guess this is a bit of a subject change, but are there any other direct or indirect PKD references in Fall lyrics?

It is. Mark admitted it to a journalist when he was asked. He said it was a dance to get rid of the aphids. I love Scanner Darkly. It gets so weird towards the end.

I always thought 'In These Times' was a very PKD inspired song. That line 'My aqua cat is where it's at, new to mammal range' (I think that's how it goes).

I really like Pine Leaves. I'm a big fan of crap keyboards, and the line 'This was not a concentration camp' is used very well.

arid al's dream is totally based on the PKD book Ubik. and is also excellent I can't believe it got left offa shift work.

about CC: To me it's like the Light US companion. the song "one day" has been quoted to a few of my ex girlfriends

I'm not satisfied totally out does the Zappa version(and I say that as a zappa fan)

Pearl City has some of my favorite ninties lyrics

Dan't call me darling is also great, when AMBMA called it a perfect pop song he was on the mark(e. smith, hee hee). I've always been a big fan of the live version

pearl city is the best thing on it
I never liked much of the nineties stuff to be honest but that and powder keg off of Lite user always end up on my fall compilations


feeling numb is ok too but i can take or leave the rest of it

I was never that impressed with this album, although I did listen to it quite a bit when I first got it.

The Joke -- not bad. Got into this more through it being played live, and the live version on 'In The City' is great.

Don't Call Me Darling -- pretty good, there have been some good live versions too (Phoenix 95 for example, if I recall correctly).

Rainmaster -- I could *not* imagine Michael Jackson covering this song!
Fall on auto pilot in my opinion. It's not bad, but just unimaginitive and Fall-by-numbers.

Feeling Numb -- one of my favourites! Among my favourite 90's Fall tracks, this one. I love the guitar and Brix's backing vocals - a great combination of nasty and sexy!

Pearl City -- ok, again some good live versions of this one - good keyboard on some of the live versions I've heard.

Life Just Bounces -- I prefer the original. I'm glad they revived this song though. I remember seeing them at the Forum. London in October 95. I'd been a little down, and the gig took a while to 'get into', but by the last track, a long version of Bounces (missing from a bootleg tape of the gig, possibly because it was an encore), I was deliriously happy!

I'm Not Satisfied -- ok. I've heard two Zappa versions of this, one a faux-bluesy version (presumably from Ruben and the Jets (sp)? - I've not really got into Zappa, although I love the track 'Peaches en Regalia') and one very similar to The Fall's version, though the latter was better. There was an interesting slower live Fall version, performed in '94 sometime.

The Aphid -- ok, I've not listened to it for a long time.

Bonkers in Phoenix -- very good indeed. Another favourite from the album. At Brix's last gig (The Forum, London, April '96 I think?) she performed this without the effects - I actually like her song behind this without all the malarkey. She said in an interview once that she'd written a song about gifts between lovers not lasting, losing their lustre, but it wasn't complete, and Mark said it needed the Pheonix couterpart which made it better.

One Day -- pretty good, I remember one reviewer saying it reminded him of REM! Earlier REM I guess (perhaps circa Murmur...incidentally I remember one of REM, Peter Buck I think, saying he thought The Fall were brilliant, citing 'Leave The Capitol' as being amazing).

Nothwest Fashion Show -- I sometimes like The Fall 'mucking about' songs - I must be one of the few who loves listening to 'Crew Filth'!:) This one doesn't do much for me though - another 'autopilot'/Fall-by-numbers song.

Pine Leaves -- I do like this one. Pleasant.

The member of REM who cited "Leave The Capitol" (one of my Fall top 10 if I ever had to choose at gunpoint) was Mike "Mick" Mills. Quite how REM would sound if they ever chose to utilise this influence is beyond my imagination - the only REM song I could imagine the Fall covering is "Driver 8" could do with a bit of the Salford drawl........

I understand the Pearl City is still going in Manchester. Anyone been there lately?

yes sir!: it lends wings to one's shoulder-blades.

cheers
marco

Hello All
Just bought this after holding out for years and now cannot stop playing it. Love it to bits. Also bought code: selfish, but can't get on with that one. Any thoughts?
Doc

CC easily one of my faves. Love The Aphid and Feeling Numb, Pearl City was really good live.

me too....i actually love 'dont call me darling'. :o ....n everyone hates that :rolleyes:

Yay, the CC forum at last! I think it's fuckin' ace too, sod the whingers with their "er, don't really like it, I prefer other stuff" fascism. Best thing of 1988-98 in my opinion. One of the few I can listen to from start to finish too. In fact one of only about three. Four counting Listening in, which doesn't count, and which would be another good 1987-98 thing, except it's 2002.

It does exactly what it says on the label - clears the dross from the brain, refreshes the palate; you emerge at the other end, and look at the world with new ears ^_^

Glad I'm not the only one who likes it. Don't know why it took me so long to get it. After seeing MES dancing in the EYF vid I'd love to see him give a demonstration of The Aphid.

I'm another soldier in the Cerebral Caustic Defense League. I think more people will warm up to it as time goes by. I said something in another thread about CC
suffering from coming on the heels of The Infotainment Scan and MCR. Since CC
showed that the techno stuff on the two previous albums wasn't going to be a permanent part of the Fall soundscape, a lot of folks resent it for that reason. CC:
fucking great.

Play it loud with headphones & you can just make out a lot of the Dave Bush stuff mixed very low.

Oh yeah, he was just about to get the elbow wasn't he? (according to Hip Priest book). Wonder how the old Fall cashflow is doing at the moment...

Listened to MCR and CC back to back today...can't believe how much better CC is than MCR....1/2 of MCR is downright shoddy....the fucking drums sound great on CC...excellent album

S'alright. A while ago I realised that most of the Fall's albums consist of between 50 and 70% machine-written filler, but the remainder is utterly unforgettable genius that justifies it. With this one, there's the usual bits of genius (Bonkers At Phoenix, the really underrated One Day, Life Just Bounces), but the rest makes much less of an impression than usual. I think there's something definitely missing - the band just sound kinda bored and listless throughout (MES audibly yawns before he starts singing on Life Just Bounces, I don't know if anyone else has noticed).

But: I love the way the album sounds. At its best, it's just so bitter and scuzzy and fucked-up and scathing. There's something I find strangely interesting about listless, tired albums like Cerebral Caustic. Mark wasn't at all well at the time this was recorded, was he?

i was never too keen on the drum sound myself. thought they sounded a bit flat. might just have been my speakers though.

still have very mixed feelings about cc. the aphid is ace f'sure, as is bonkers in phoenix. have to agree with fallfandave about don't call me darling. yeah, its a dum pop tune, but the fall are very good at dum pop tunes when they want to be.

but i always feel like something's missing from cc, though i'm not exactly sure what. it is a better listen than mcr though.

I think the sound's pretty so-so at best, but love the songs. Pop-tastic! CD/tape only, I think, so I wonder if they'll do anything different on a reish?

Song for song MCR is miles better than CC, there's just a general feeling that both records were treading water compared to Infotainment beforehand and the big return to form with LUS.

And Pascal Le Gras may be a sublime genius or something, but that beige MCR cover is amazingly offputting.

Don't know about the state of MES's health at the time of CC, Pat, but for LUS he was really crook (see Brix quoted in the Ford book) and I reckon it gives the vocal 'performance' a really different edge - detached, half spoken until he gives it a real rip for 'He Pep', which is quite startling as a result.

I like CC right enough but I reckon Life Just Bounces lets it down badly - I don't mind half-arsed covers, but half-arsed re-recordings I can live without, and the orig. Dredger version was pretty forgetable anyway.

I am listenin to that life just bounces....n u right...very bad recordin...technically..but a gr8 song n full of energy....more energy than rurmw... :zzzz:

Just gave this one a concentrated listening with headphones, and it's definitely a headphone album. Lots of little tape snippets and guitar fuzzes that I never noticed. I was pretty floored for the first 5 songs, then the middle section bores me, but Bonkers till the end blows me away. Very solid album.

Anyone ever wonder what the deal is with MES in angel wings? Hilarious, but seems a bit vain comin' from him.

The answer that comes to mind first is that it's about death — skull on the cover — like maybe he thought he was going to die, but that's mundane and doesn't sound right based on interviews from the period. Still, there is the "I'm Not Satisfied" cover, mention of Prozac, etc. — maybe this album was recorded as some sort of catharsis, and MES was in fact at the time imagining himself in some postmortem state (which IMO he sounds like on much of the record).

Another reading is that it might have been a comment on trying to be on good behavior, now that Brix had returned (Brix is, you know, the dominant force in "Don't Call Me Darling," and MES sounds like he's taken a soft tone as if to try and assauge her anger).

I may try this with headphones, but I don't really think the Fall should be a headphones-required experience — it's not that internal, it's rock'n'roll, out in the air.

Didn't MES say he thought CC was one of their most lacklustre albums? Or was it Bend Sinister? It may have been both, 'cos I like the pair of them - just shows how much notice I take.

I think the skull was just a reference to the after-effects of said cerebral caustic, rather than to death - never got the wings tho' - mind you, there's not much (if any) swearing on it, maybe that's it.

Me too. Love The Unutterable as well, which he supposedly doesn't like. Think some of the best stuff was when there was tension betwixt MES and band.

Or MES and the producer.

Has there been a lot of that as well then?

MES vs DOSE is the obvious one... circa "Levitate".

Aha, yes.

By the way what is a splart?

I love Bend Sinister too. ROD and US 80s 90s are classics, I like the brooding British Grenadiers, Shoulder Pads has a fab tune, Auto Tech Pilot a fabulous beginning, and the other songs are pretty good. Brix is a bit over the top on Faustus, but this for me is one of their best. Dynamic stuff.

Riddler's my fave - I think MES hated the production, but I can't see it as more out of character (what's in character?) than most of the 90s. Great stuff.