Interim, Album reviews

don't really want to know why - for now at least - but by George this one's got me hooked

more please-track by track run down? eg, how diff from the peel session for clasp, blindnes etc and how are the old ones reworked?

look forward to more

Stop showing off that you've got it, Mark, and give us details - I demand details, dammit

mark's in playful mode +the songs get opened up more than re-worked - hardly what you'd call definitive versions here, and surely disappointment if thats what you want. But there's so much going on that helps reveal the songs in new lights.
Couldn't believe sparta fc no:3 at first, but now wonder if it's not the most affecting version of all - yes. Eleni is instrumental to this.
Boxoctosis alarum - complete with a guitar strum that reminds me of Alvin Stardust's pretend - smashing, yes.
they're all v good, for me.

how did he get it so early.

It says it was recorded live in the studio..

any good MES overdubbing/tape playing? The distortion part of Blindness for instance, seems like the type of minor detail on a peel session that I love that would get left behind for the studio version.

What's the lowdown on the mysterious "I'm Ronnie" track???

It's a typo - the track is in fact MES's rather 'unique' cover of 'I'm Horny'...

Are Mark and Patrick the only two people here to have heard this album? Weird, JP's passing has kind of detracted from what would otherwise be the hottest topic on the board.. but understandable and appropriate

indeed - if it wasn't The Fall, putting up thoughts on a new album might be construed as irreverant 'business as usual', but listening to it last night felt alot more appropriatre than anything on the radio.

It is very different to the peel sessions - messier, but more alive.
Mark is clearer than ever - his vocal on boxoctosis alarum so soft, wistful.
Dubbed in for backing vocals, mod mock goth is in effect an mes/mes duet.
Like Levitate the band has been pushed back, with vocals really dominant, but strangely enough it doesn't detract from the power of the songs - What about us is more crushing here than on the peel session.
Could it be mark on keyboards (bagpipes?) for blindness?!
They seem to have got the awkwardness of wrong place just right - getting that strange rhythm without tripping.
Green-eyed snorkel has epilogue about leaving gas boiler, no boyhood behind.
It's maybe just the mood I'm in, but I've found it an immediately engaging record,
but perhaps I shouldn't say so much - as mes writes on the inner sleeve (just below "comments will be ignored") ~ "The Results are up to you to decide
to decide is but you."

Hey! It's my review of Interim, below:

[EDIT: Except it isn't. Fed up of being robbed by blogs and magazine bastards quoting me and not offering to pay, or at least contacting me to ask if I can be quoted. I go to all this effort to offer some objective criticism for an album by a band I LOVE, and it gets taken out of all proportion. Fuck this.]

And the worst thing about this - unlike with Totale's or AYAMW - is that now, it's fucking predictable. Thanks for the review, Patrick.

You are Mark E Smith and I claim my £5. You're only saying that to get us to buy it.

Actually that's what I planned all along to pay for it.

But that's been one of the rules of The Fall since day 1 (Fiery Jack, Couldn't get Ahead etc..)

Nevertheless, I won't be going out of my way to buy it.

You're best off getting hold of the Blindman demo - it's not great, but it's better than anything off Interim by a country mile (well, several).

I might add that Interim might be tagged as one of those 'total Fall experience' albums that supposedly represents the band better than other, superior LPs. Bollocks, obviously - the Real New LP represents what The Fall can do if they really try. Interim collects all the worst, wankiest and time-wasting elements of the Fall sound and puts them together for your listening pleasure. It doesn't even represent the fact that the band are great live right now, because everything's too slow and dreary and inaudible.

Seriously, even if you're really curious about what Interim sounds like by now, you ought not to bother. It's not even entertainingly bad.

Hmmm...Im not sure. Came home from work today and it was waiting for me (pre-ordered from Voiceprint) I had been so looking forward to this album - seen them live 3 times this year, and they are shit hot. I listen and Im on a bit of a downer. The recent Peel sessions raised my expectations even higher (how glad I taped it- and now I WILL be buying the box set after all!)
But it IS still the Fall, and for me at least, that is always something. I will file it away with all the rest, and keep listening to the Blind Man demo CD.
What is MES doing? I dunno. Maybe he doesnt either. I will still be interested, for a while yet anyway (25 years and counting...!) Thats the way it is.
Oh, and I havent even put on my 2 2-disc DVDs that came with the CD. Kind of nervous about them now...shit! Cant wait to find out...anyone else out there like me bought the whole lot from Voiceprint?
Caught MES on Newsnight last night. Im in two minds about that "performance" too.
With the tragic news about John Peel, I'm glad that hes still alive anyway. And still making me think.

if i had the money i would buy it, but i dont.

If MES needs the money so badly that he has to put out Interim, why not just GIVE him cash? That way you don't have to listen to Interim. Everyone's a winner.

I do still love The Fall, though. And I trust them to do a great new proper album - the new material, as the last Peel session showed, is darn good. But their treatment on Interim is a terrible waste. I get the impression that the tapes were taken out of the band's hands soon after recording, much like Missing Winner (which was at least peurile and funny). Sigh.

I'm angry because it's such an unnecessary record, really. I mean, my job is shitty and it pisses me off but that's inevitable because of the way the world's economy is structured... Whereas there's nothing on this new stopgap LP that has made me sit up and say "Boy, this HAD to be released!".

sorry to hear this.

If MES needs money badly, why not take any of the recent live shows (e.g. the Munich tapes) and make a totally rockin' live album out of them?

Haven't heard Interim yet, but if it's really this bad, then the rationale must be other than money.

but where did you want it to go?
I don't think that there's a raw or spontaneous effect here, but more reflective.
Call me sycophant if you like, but I like to think I'm honest to my feelings, and they just want +choose to listen to this one again +again.
I not so bothered about the finish of a song if the spirit is there, even the use of crude methods - the potentially exasperating ups+downs of volume in spoilt victorian childe - like a truculent brat fiddling - or the bleeping alarum - but I surprise myself with fascination in them.
sparta is not only flat, but shifted out of sync, so that eleni comes in earlier than anticipated, mark later. It has lost the macho bark, instead more like the taunt of a teenage girl (far more lethal?)
I mean, to me it's bursting apart at the seams, for sure, but only because of the life inside it. I relisten to the real new lp, which sounds so old now.
It'll likely be despised my many, catch few, no doubt, but the important thing is what you feel about it yourself.

ps. the sound quality is fine for me, but I'll let you know soon enough if the effect wears off with play.

I'm not cussing you, man. I was kind of expecting lots of people to say that Interim is meant to be shoddy because it's not a 'proper' album / it's that intangible Fall genius at work again / that's 'the point' and I don't 'get it', like that somehow excuses a lack of artistic merit (well, it lacks it to me... might have to agree to disagree on this one ). Because I'd seen it happen with Missing Winner and this reminds me of it, but less fun. But it's not really happened yet. Man, I'm such a visionary.

The thing is, I *really* wanted to like Interim. I'd already set my expectations a bit lower than usual after I'd read about the idea behind it, and I was particularly interested in hearing the new versions of Loco Man and Sparta. So for it to piss me off when I was already making allowances really rankled.

And while I hate comparing Fall albums (I honestly wasn't thinking of the Real New LP while listening to Interim, for example. I probably would have cried if I did that), wasn't Hex Enduction Hour basically recorded live? Man, that rips...

Right, Im back and just watched the Punkast 2004 gig(s) - 17 tracks recorded in April in NYC.
The visuals are absolutely crap - hand held (old?) video camera?!!
Sound a bit better (found myself having to bung up the TV volume and twiddle with the bass/treble. But I kept watching..and watching.Mark more static than normal (incapacitated by his accident and not just the booze!)
But I am now decided - the Fall ARE still for me. Yep - there is no other like them. MES just doent give a shit about anyone or anything else.Really. Even us. Just the Fall. I join him in that.
No-one made me by the stuff. MES probably doesnt care that I did, or what I, (or Patrick et al) think: "comments will be ignored"!. Fine. I accept that, and if I think about it, I welcome it. Its part of what attracts me to all that is the Fall.
PS Anyone bought the Cherry Red DVD yet? Oh shit, here I go again..

Mark - Your reactions all strike me as very thoughtful and genuine and I would never in a million years invalidate your opinions. I think it's great, for example, how fiercely you defend AYAMW, and why.

But what I'd like to know is when the Fall *aren't* good enough for you -- when have they left you cold?

how to pre-order this from vp anyway? there doesnt appear to be any way of doing so-was this available to those on the datrabase? just out of interest-think ill use action and score hacienda which im rea;lly looking forward to from someone's comments-mark?