Never sure how I feel when a posthumous release happens……I need convincing the artist would approve, which is hard when they’re dead so when I heard the Fall have a new album coming out, 8 years after Mark E Smith died I was a bit worried.

Anyway, I was happy to hear the new single’s ace.

Every middle aged music fan has a favourite Fall era. Mine was from the Frenz Experiment through to Shiftwork …and I sort of drifted off them after that. The sleeves got ever more terrible which didn’t help.

My sister used to work in a library…and back then, you could rent out vinyl albums and I used to get them for free…which was my way into a load of ace music.

Anyway, I really didn’t know what to make of the Fall…..nothing else sounded like them…but I really fell for them after hearing the singles and B sides compilation from the late 80s which covered the Brix era..ie…’the hits’ (or as close as they ever came to hits)…..My favourite album is Extricate…it’s all killer, no filler.

It’s got one of my favourite ever songs on it by any band…’Bill Is Dead’…..it’s such a gut punch….an actual proper song he actually sings. There’s a great video from Snub TV… (excellent cult indie TV show) on YouTube (won’t embed for some reason), but you can find it here

I saw the Fall play live a couple of times…..once at the Roadhouse in Manchester..probably in ’92 and then again at the Charlotte in Leicester…early 2000s. Always great to see him sprawl and bark.

There’s few good books to read on the band….. The Big Midweek by long time member Steven Hanley….

..and ‘Excavate’…..which turns the Fall into an academic matter….mostly needlessly, but enjoyable regardless.

…and the podcast by the brothers Hanley is good, too..they’ve had sone cool guests over the years

Here’s a playlist I put together..if you’re new to the Fall, this will be a guiding hand