It's a knockout thing.

Vote for your favourite. In a week or so I'll run this again, minus the album with the least amount of votes. In the event of a tie, all of those at the bottom of the pile will disappear, and so on and so on until we have a winner.

Some cycle races are like this...Devil Take The Hindmost, I think they used to be called...

I'm voting Slates every time. A small piece of perfection.

Who's voted for Levitate!!!!????

~raises hand~

Do you want me to engage in a defence of said album?

yeah...go on.

I can imagine someone's favourite album being Levitate, unlike say, Cerebral Caustic or The Frenz Experiment but I've gone for Code:Selfish

I'd like to hear why Levitate, tho.

I'd like to hear why Code:Selfish...

I'd like to hear why Code: Selfish, too. I find it hugely dull. But I think that Cerebral Caustic is damned good.

I wrote a fanzine article defending Levitate once. I'm going to try and dig it out...

...and fail to do so. I think it might be on my work's computer. However, the whole thing rests on the fact that it's a brilliant piece of work as a whole, rather than just a collection of tracks. The whole thing extremely well crafted together, as if all of the songs were meant to be played together. It's all rather brave, too, of course. I think that Hurricane Edward and Everybody But Myself are wonderful, wonderful pieces of work, especially when they switch to live recordings. The latter is especially good in that sense.

'Levitate' the song is one of my all time favourites too, although I really can't fault anything on there. Every other Fall album has at least one song on that I don't like, but Levitate doesn't.

I really wish that I could explain myself better sometimes.

Why Code:Selfish?

Well, I suppose there's a subconscious thing there to a degree, although the first Fall LP I ever purchased, somewhat bizarrely, was Hip Priest & Kamerads, Code:Selfish was the "current" LP when I first started listening to the Fall.

Secondly, it's a very balanced record, lyrically. There's a nice mix of personal, polemical, observational and fantastical lyrics on there so I can listen to it for different reasons and in different moods. There are also several very good individual lines and conceits on it, and some very cool ideas. Gentlemans Agreement to me is up there with In The Park as possibly MES's best-realised lyric.

Musically, I think it's the high water mark for two Fall musicians-Craig Scanlon and Dave Bush, both of whom I think never sustained that level of brilliance over a single Fall LP before or since. I find Code:Selfish a great way of persuading the non-Fall fan that Scanlon was a truly great guitar player.

This probably isn't the most sophisticated piece of musical criticism ever penned, but I do genuinely like it a lot. I could make a good argument that Hex, which is probably the Fall album I play second to most often, or the Light User Syndrome (my favourite of the "under-rated" Fall LPs) are BETTER records, but I don't necessarily LIKE them as much, which I suppose is was I thought of when I saw the phrase "Favourite album".

Why Slates?

Anyone gonna own up to Interim...?

The switch in Everybody But Myself is from live to studio, but I know what you mean. It is a magical song. Unfortunately, there are too many dud covers and half-finished ideas on the album for me to make it more than halfway satisfactory.

I think you should give less than a week for each round, by the way...make it short and snappy...unfair, maybe, but more fun. It's not a scientific poll in any case, is it? Good fun, though.

Is it not the case that much of Levitate, rather than being half-finished, is finished and then undone again, or deconstructed. Didn't Simon leave becuase he felt that Masquerade had been a potential hit single that had been rendered uncommercial, or summat?

See also the thoughts of Chairman Prindle.

http://www.markprindle.com/falla.htm#levitate

I went for Kurious Oranj as it was the first Fall album I bought and it sounded like nothing else I had ever heard before and the photos inside the sleeve looked amazing. It's not the best Fall album but it is my favourate and the one I still play the most (or possibly Slates).

I've mentioned this before but I think it is true that 'best' and 'favourate' are not necessarily the same thing with music, I tend to find. Hex is the best and I always find myself saying "wow" when I hear it, but I tend to listen to Oranj more often. Similarly (in my opinion):
Velvets best = banana, fave = 3rd album
Beach Boys best = Pet Sounds, fave = Wild Honey
Beatles best = Revolver, fave = Rubber Soul

Why not change as soon as all but one of the records has got a vote, and so forth?

Martin: I think a week would be the maximum. I'll stop the poll and move onto the next when people stop voting, and if that's in three or four days, then fair enough!

Everybody But Myself: Yes, you're right. I'm tired. I quite like the half finished ideas on a proportion of the album, however. I think they gel so well with the stronger songs on there.

I like the idea of the album being deconstructed. The title song in particular is a good example of this, I think.

Acton: A very good idea, I feel. I'll look into it!

But whilst we're waiting for either Seminal Live or Room To Live to get the final vote, we may crumble and die...

I see that Interim has got a vote, mind. And Levitate is in the lead!

I've gone for PBL, second half really, the likes of 'I Feel Voxish' and 'Tempo House', hanley at his best.

Used to use '....Fitter' to try and convert non-belivers. Not highly succesful but I still love it and can listen to it any time.

Right mixture of weirdness and rhythm to the whole album.

:applaud: :applaud:

Can't see beyond the Grotesque/Slates/Hex trio myself. Went for Grotesque this round.

Yeah, yeah. I did it.

I did it because I was just posting in another thread about how awesome it is, and figured I'd vote for it here, by way of advertisement.

Figured my other favorites would make it to the next round without my help.

There's a danger that people will be tempted to vote for albums they don't want to see knocked out, rather than their favourites (the 1979–86 stuff), which they expect will go through to the next round...

Thought there was going to be a Fall Cup for albums .........

Yes, it's true. I've done it.

One can argue the moral ramifications, but my conscience is clean.

Also, my favorite Fall stuff is not the 79-86 stuff, although I recognize and appreciate that to many that era is priveledged in the canon.

Usually I praise "This Nation's Saving Grace". It will, as "Hex", get enough votes. Like to do something for an overlooked one, go one year ahead and give it to "Bend Sinister."

Was thinking about "Perverted By Language", too.

Maybe this is 'Fall Cup Albums' Pre-Season?

I thought an upcoming 'Albums Fall Cup' was in the works as well.

AYAMW.

Everything you could possibly need.

Deny it! :wub:

:D

Not trying to be contrarian or iconoclastic (having endorsed "Interim"), but, yes. I endorse your endorsement of AYAMW.

I voted for "Dragnet" because it fared very badly in a recent poll. Otherwise it might as well have been album no. 4, 5 or 6.

Of the ones with zero votes so far I quit like:

Frenz
Infotainment
Light User
Marshall
Unutterable
The Real New Fall LP

This just to give confidence to those who might worry about being underepresented.

Why is that Fall fans always fight with each other over the albums they like and don't like? You won't see this among Smiths fans! But I guess the Fall can do no wrong, eh? EH???

I hope we're not fighing.

I love the fact that people priveledge different albums.

(As per Smiths; that may have to do with limited output. Being a solo Morrisey fan, I get may fair share of antagonism.)

I think it's a wonderful thing that the fall have released upwards of 80 albums. The odds have it that no one will agree. 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong: We love The Fall.

You should have had people vote for the album they like least, and then the one with the most votes is eliminated.

Then on the next poll you have to pick which is your least favourite of the rest, and so on.

Yeah! AYAMW is so slighted. It's a cracker! By far not my "favorite" or their "best" IMO, but a fine, fine rockinroll record.

I also agree that this is a bit flawed as a poll. My "faves" oscillate between Grotesque, Perverted and Wonderful and Frightening as a rule, but I ticked Frenz Experiment here because it hadn't been voted for and I don't want to see it eliminated.

On top of that, I think it's a killer record. On my top 10 at least.

Main reasons - it's new (well, 2001) it's not dangerously overproduced (if at all) and it certainly doesn't outstay it's welcome. And it's got Crop Dust and IbisAfro Man on it. Even if it ended after the latter track it would make a killer EP.

Sounds fresher then most of the 90s input anyway (not that they're crap because they're not in the least.) Hell, i'd rather listen to it then the Brix stuff.

Best. Fall. Ever.

:beer:

Another thing. I am really forkin' tired of having The Smiths brought up in approx. 79% of these threads.

Isn't there a forum somewhere where Smiths fans can go whine and be melodramatic at each other?

The band themselves made some excellent pop music. If it just hadn't been ruined by that cockamamie warbling tit morrissey....

Yes, exactly right. A big thumbs up for Marr, but his leader does nothing for me.

The Unutterable, this week, although I do have to pretend that some of the later tracks don't exist...

Gorillabat, I like your 'least favourites' idea. Maybe someone should instigate it?

And no, this isn't quite The Fall Albums Cup. Although I do like the Cup idea - fighting pairs of albums - I thought I'd try something a little different.

'twas h shipman's idea for a least favorite. Thanks for the shout though!

Levitate, second favourite here, is the second least favourite here. What can it all mean?