Title: The Frenz Experiment
Description: Favourite track?
Stephen - June 7, 2004 08:35 AM (GMT)
Martin - June 7, 2004 08:45 AM (GMT)
This is one of the hardest as this album is superb. Carry Bag Man is the one I've gone for, but in reality it could have been 7 or 8 other songs.
Stephen - June 7, 2004 08:47 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (mpetersvalencia @ Jun 7 2004, 08:45 AM) |
| This is one of the hardest as this album is superb. Carry Bag Man is the one I've gone for, but in reality it could have been 7 or 8 other songs. |
The version of Bremen Nacht here is the original vinyl one – I'm going for that as the most dynamic moment on the record.
fallfandave - June 7, 2004 08:51 AM (GMT)
cbm.....by a million leagues of bald men
danjo - June 7, 2004 11:48 PM (GMT)
I agree with dave!." carry bag man" is the best! :applaud: :applaud:
gorillabat - June 8, 2004 01:39 AM (GMT)
I agree that Frenz is a rock solid rekkid.
CBM is more than swell, but I dig the title kickoff track. The cover of Victoria is majestic sounding too. Athlete Cured is a fave as well.
But I'm going to brave the slings and arrows and go with Oswald Defence Lawyer. The way MES yelps "lah-yehhhhr" and the bone-excellent guitar breaks after the choruses are sublime. Lyrics are wonderful to boot.
Drjohnrock - June 8, 2004 03:35 AM (GMT)
I'm pleasantly surprised to find myself in the majority in favor of Carry Bag Man.
Powerful track, with confounding words--is about fashion? a homeless person?
Regardless, this one song persuaded a friend of mine--a casual fan of the band who doesn't get everything they release--to buy the album.
chachacha - June 8, 2004 03:47 AM (GMT)
Frenz-very ironic/biographical-whatever and laconic slacker like, carry bag man for same reason-the slack/simple bass too...
ah but hen again breman nacht/oswald/athlete cured...even steak place-a man should not have to use his fists in.... the gipper thread
Martin - June 8, 2004 07:13 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Drjohnrock @ Jun 8 2004, 03:35 PM) |
I'm pleasantly surprised to find myself in the majority in favor of Carry Bag Man. Powerful track, with confounding words--is about fashion? a homeless person? Regardless, this one song persuaded a friend of mine--a casual fan of the band who doesn't get everything they release--to buy the album. |
The song is gentle self-mockery.
Stephen - June 8, 2004 09:38 AM (GMT)
Of course, this would have been a better album if it had included Guest Informant itself, not simply the instrumental excerpt. But then how great is it that The Fall would use such a high-quality track as a b-side?
Mr Sheps - June 8, 2004 12:50 PM (GMT)
Oswald Defence Lawyer. Great lyrics. Very hypnotic. Carry Bag Man, Frenz and Get a Hotel also great.
fallfandave - June 8, 2004 01:17 PM (GMT)
for me ...they would have been better to leave victoria off n put on....twister...tuff life boogie...australians in europe.....guest informant [proper one]....cos i like these better :)
falparsi - June 8, 2004 01:26 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (fallfandave @ Jun 9 2004, 01:17 AM) |
| for me ...they would have been better to leave victoria off n put on....twister...tuff life boogie...australians in europe.....guest informant [proper one]....cos i like these better :) |
Twister was my all time favourite for about ten years - possibly the most over played 12" in my collection - ah those heady days of yore! :blink:
Stephen - June 10, 2004 08:25 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (fallfandave @ Jun 8 2004, 01:17 PM) |
| for me ...they would have been better to leave victoria off n put on....twister...tuff life boogie...australians in europe.....guest informant [proper one]....cos i like these better :) |
I like Victoria and find it works very well on the LP. But you are right that the album would have been better with G.I. and Twister.
Tuff Life Booogie is not one of their greatest moments though, surely?
heavilycoveredinslime - June 12, 2004 10:56 PM (GMT)
Carry Bag Man, definitely. Not too sure about this album... I prefer a lot of the b-sides far more to the album tracks. I just do not like The Steak Place and In These Times.
squarehead - June 18, 2004 02:53 PM (GMT)
guitar riff (riffs?) copped form Spinal Tap. when I learned this the album's brilliance became clear: recycle, re-use, like elastic man / matchstick. Steal from inferior sources, b/c in rock & pop, a riff's a riff looking for better context.
Joseph Holt - June 18, 2004 05:37 PM (GMT)
Oswald Defense Lawyer.
Never been able to get into Carry Bag Man - it goes nowhere. I lump it together with The Steak Place and In These Times - Always skipped past when I listen to the CD (which isn't too often).
fallfandave - June 18, 2004 05:38 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Tuff Life Booogie is not one of their greatest moments though, surely? |
i love it....like i said....don't see why ppl take pseudo-objective stances
n since no one here is ref ...that is that :finger:
:beer:
Stephen - June 24, 2004 09:02 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (fallfandave @ Jun 18 2004, 05:38 PM) |
| why ppl take pseudo-objective stances |
Could be a Fall song title/lyric with a few minor edits...
usrlocal - June 26, 2004 01:04 AM (GMT)
Frenz.
Now that I'm seeing how people have reacted to this album since it was released, I'm really surprised to find that a lot of reviewers consider it a weak album. Frenz was (I think) my very first Fall LP and I loved it so much I had to go out and get as much Fall as I could get my hands on.
It's really weird to not think about an album for 15 years or so and then read about how everybody else felt about it since. I feel like Rumpelstiltskin or something...
The ravages of time, and all that...
gorillabat - June 26, 2004 08:37 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| I feel like Rumpelstiltskin or something... |
You mean Rip Van Winkle, no?
I think it was he who slept 20 years or whatever.
IIRC, Rumplestiltskin was the creepy li'l bugger who kidnapped royal children. Sort of the fairy-tale pedophiliac version of Michael Jackson.
usrlocal - June 26, 2004 12:55 PM (GMT)
:o
Yeah, I guess I better not say I feel like Rumpelstiltskin. Might get me arrested or something.
Rip Van Winkle it is then. :D
Biggest_Librarian_Yet - June 27, 2004 03:34 PM (GMT)
I thought this was their first really average album - can never understand why so many folk like it. Horrid 80s production - just as the 80s was finally drunkenly crawling to a close! - repulsive sleeve art, MES-as-popstar nonsense and indie disco naffness all round.
When I do 'Here - The Fall - they are as good as I say, honest!' compilation CDs for people these days, there is one Frenz thrack that normally goes on though, and that's Athlete Cured. Musically it's Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You (Tonight) by Spinal Tap, so no questioning the genius levels there, and lyrically it's up there with I'm Into CB and New Face In Hell as a funny/scary paranoid novella in song form. The rest of the album you can shove up your cock, frankly.
usrlocal - June 27, 2004 06:35 PM (GMT)
Well, now that you put it that way, I'm afraid to go back and listen to Frenz. It's been about 15 years since I last listened to it. :o
Stephen - June 28, 2004 11:27 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Biggest_Librarian_Yet @ Jun 27 2004, 03:34 PM) |
| repulsive sleeve art, MES-as-popstar nonsense and indie disco naffness all round. |
The mistake you make here is to assume that repulsive sleeve art, MES-as-popstar nonsense and indie disco naffness are bad things...
Stephen - July 15, 2004 08:49 AM (GMT)
Funny no one's gone for Victoria: I love it.
Martin - July 15, 2004 09:56 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Stephen @ Jul 15 2004, 08:49 PM) |
| Funny no one's gone for Victoria: I love it. |
But you didn't vote for it.
otherdave - July 15, 2004 10:13 AM (GMT)
Am I the only Steak Place fan? Love the song, actually it's the only thing on the LP I can be arsed with. Good to be a minority of 1 again. Phew!
kid mongo - July 19, 2004 12:47 AM (GMT)
Frenz
The Steak Place
Oswald Defense Lawyer
I played this CD for an old girlfriend and three weeks later she left me. I have always thought that there was a connection.
otherdave - July 19, 2004 01:01 AM (GMT)
:lol: :applaud:
Just as well she wasn't a new one :)
Martin - July 19, 2004 06:37 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (otherdave @ Jul 15 2004, 10:13 PM) |
| Am I the only Steak Place fan? Love the song, actually it's the only thing on the LP I can be arsed with. Good to be a minority of 1 again. Phew! |
No, I too love The Steak Place. It's just that we can only vote for one song.
AndyM - July 24, 2004 06:35 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Stephen @ Jun 28 2004, 11:27 PM) |
| QUOTE (Biggest_Librarian_Yet @ Jun 27 2004, 03:34 PM) | | repulsive sleeve art, MES-as-popstar nonsense and indie disco naffness all round. |
The mistake you make here is to assume that repulsive sleeve art, MES-as-popstar nonsense and indie disco naffness are bad things...
|
Quite like disco myself... Though I'd hardly claim the Fall are capable of pulling out the dancefloor stops, a few decent beat-driven tracks nonwithstanding.
Andy
R. Totale - August 3, 2004 01:55 PM (GMT)
Bremen Nacht.. This album's OK, but tunes like Oswald Defence Lawyer and In These Times are amongst their worst
athlete not cured - August 5, 2004 08:33 AM (GMT)
Green - August 14, 2004 03:02 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Stephen @ Jun 7 2004, 08:47 PM) |
| QUOTE (mpetersvalencia @ Jun 7 2004, 08:45 AM) | | This is one of the hardest as this album is superb. Carry Bag Man is the one I've gone for, but in reality it could have been 7 or 8 other songs. |
The version of Bremen Nacht here is the original vinyl one – I'm going for that as the most dynamic moment on the record.
|
This is another Fall title that I don't have on CD, is the version on that different?
I like this album fine, it's what they were touring behind when I saw them, for the only time, and most of the songs have made their onto various mix tapes, except for In These Times, which didn't do much for me.
CBM, Oswald, and the title track sounded great live, but I do remember being disappointed that Bremen Nacht, which is my vote, wasn't aired that night.
requiredfield - August 31, 2004 12:38 AM (GMT)
Out of all The Fall albums I own this is my least favorite.
It's just ok.
Bremen Nacht
| QUOTE |
| This album's OK, but tunes like Oswald Defence Lawyer and In These Times are amongst their worst |
I agree.
REX - August 31, 2004 01:20 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (requiredfield @ Aug 30 2004, 07:38 PM) |
Out of all The Fall albums I own this is my least favorite.
| QUOTE | | This album's OK, but tunes like Oswald Defence Lawyer and In These Times are amongst their worst |
|
Frenz is a very weird record. In some ways, it's so low key, and in others it's bafflingly impenetrable... it's just hard to understand what exactly the band were striving for. It's not as poppy as people say... I feel that Brix's role is undeniably downplayed on this record... so it would be interesting to see if it is the Brix-haters that actually like it. I like Brix, and feel like the energy she brought to the band is missing here. This must be when their relationship started to crumble. I do have days when I'm fond of this sound. I don't dislike any of the songs, though I am curious about that original vinyl version of "Breman Nacht" - do we know why it was replaced?
Why exactly do people disapprove of "In These Times"? "Oswald Defence Lawyer" is more objectionable, but I like it, too. Would you rather have "Hit the North" and "Ghost in My House" put in their respective places?
fallchase - August 31, 2004 01:33 AM (GMT)
athlete cured absolutely rules.
gorillabat - August 31, 2004 01:52 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE |
| Out of all The Fall albums I own this is my least favorite |
Oh. You must not own Middle Class Revolt then, eh?
REX - August 31, 2004 03:34 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (gorillabat @ Aug 30 2004, 08:52 PM) |
| QUOTE | | Out of all The Fall albums I own this is my least favorite |
Oh. You must not own Middle Class Revolt then, eh?
|
I *do* think MCR is better than Frenz... :unsure: