The Fall circa 2000 were very much an unknown quantity. The big split from Hanley/Burns etc in '98 was still fresh in the memory, and there were serious doubts about the competency of the new line up. The Marshall Suite a year earlier was a glorious conjurers act of raw primal garage and production tricks, largely attributable to Smith and Julia Nagle, then a major song contributor and electronics instrumentalist.
Anyone who had seen The Fall during the tour that supported The Marshall Suite however, often witnessed a shambolic performance from a band who were unable to get it together. The only time I have witnessed MES apologizing for a poor show, was at Bristol Fleece and Firkin (a tiny venue) in 1999, the group didn't know how to start or stop the songs, and players sat out tracks entirely, looking embarrassed. MES himself compensated by being more sober than he had in years, with clear vocals and ad libs that are always a delight for the faithful. That MES may even become, or have to supplement his Fall work as a spoken word performer, was a distinct possibility with one solo CD and a few solo shows during the difficult time post '98.
Not for the last time then, a new Fall album made us curse our doubts and think; how the hell does he do it! Using the same group line up as The Marshall Suite, The Unutterable's songwriting was dense and detailed, and it's production by Grant Showbiz brought out a more polished, group led Fall. Grant Showbiz, has a legendary track record with The Fall, his productions seem to bring out the subtleties in MES's performance, and provide hidden corners to keep you coming back for endless listens. Showbiz's Fall productions runs thus, Dragnet, Totales, Grotesque, Slates, Hex Enduction Hour, The Frenz Experiment, Shiftwork, Twenty Seven Points, Chisellers, Country on the Click, The Unutterable and Imperial Wax Solvent; good work Grant! There was no single or Peel session in support of the album, which always make this one seem kind of stand alone and lost among other more celebrated releases.
Cyber Insekt opens the album with a galloping rockabilly science fiction vibe, MES is playing on the 'book of film, film of book' lyric, he always seems to love the sound a word or phrase can make, and can roll around words in his mouth, emphasizing timbre, meaning, mispronunciations unlike anyone in the 'rock' world. Apparently the subject stems from a conversation between Smith and Nagle, they were joking about making a film of the incident in NY which started with the band splitting and culminated in MES' arrest. Who knows what the Cyber Insekt is, but I like the concept. Here they are bludgeoning the track into submission.
Two Librans resists explanation, but intrigues with its references to international wars, the evil of television (a fave subject), a great mispronunciation of Chcheeecchhechneeya, and the two librans themselves both 'high and low in mind'. Some obsessives would even read predictions of 9/11 in the line, 'miracles of blonde September', although I still haven't heard a convincing explanation of 'to Oprah Winfrey, she studied bees'. The whole puzzle is driven forward with dub deep bass, punk riffery and depth charge synths. Smith the psychic can be glimpsed here.
Next up track three W.B. stands for William Blake, and completes as perfect a triumvirate of tracks as can open any album. Mid paced and reflective, MES' timing and delivery are expert, fascinating, an equal to Patti Smith or Damo Suzuki. The lyric borrows from Blakes, A Song of Liberty; from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. MES has used this text before, namely The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. For W.B. The fire, the fire is falling! Look up! look up! O citizen of London. enlarge thy countenance: O Jew (MES says merchant), leave counting gold! return to thy oil and wine: O African! black African! (go, winged thought widen his forehead). The Fiery limbs, the flaming hair, shot like the sinking sun into the western sea. Blake remains a massive influence on The Fall, as an early English philosopher, romantic and working class man. It reminds the listener that deep down MES is a romantic too.
Watch this excellent film made using Blakes illustrations from the book.
Sons of Temperance follows, notable for the urgent, electro rockabilly, and MES' gruff, preacher style delivery. Old bug bear, the 'present crypto moralist nation' is roundly cursed and some poor soul gets, 'you're an androgynous piece of slop'. The smoking ban was around the corner, and MES was keen to point out, albeit cryptically, the hypocrisies of our supposed liberal leaders (and public).
Sons is named after a film by Mark Aerial Waller who collaborated with MES on two short films during this period. Waller had quite an influence on this album, but seems overlooked, for instance he is not mentioned in any of the Fall biographies. His films Glow Boys and Midwatch both starred MES, in the former he played a caterer in a nuclear plant. MES performs a version of The Caterer (track) in the film. Midwatch, which MES also named an Unutterable track after, is set in a nuclear submarine and filmed in total darkness. Unfortunately these are the only clips I could find.
Dr. Bucks Letter is a Bukowski tribute, that has a distinct narrative, tying three threads together; first is MES regretful over his rude behavior toward a friend, secondly a letter from a doctor, and thirdly a piss take of a Pete Tong interview with MES laughing incredulously over the DJ's inane words. All this over a crunchy churning bass line and blips. Dr. Bucks is well regarded among fans, and has probably stayed in the live sets longer than any other track on the album.
Hot Runes is an great upbeat tune, with memories of Saturday football and a join in chorus, file alongside British people in hot weather and Get a Summer song going.
Way Round is MES disorientated by roundabouts, an example of MES' ability to find the uncanny in the everyday, he 'stumbles into glass discos'; I've seen him onstage, you can't imagine him driving, can you?
Octo Realm/Ketamine Sun took a long time to reveal it's merits for me. There's a reference to a Lou Reed song (Kill your sons) I've never liked, plus the sluggish pace. The only thing of interest is an unusually fragile and heartbroken MES lyric hidden beneath the dirge.
Serum ups the pace with techno beats, and an interestingly cryptic lyric that perhaps refers to addiction; 'when will the serum come again', lots of random shouting of numbers 101.1. It's similar in feel to the overcrowded confusion vibe sought by tracks like A Past Gone Mad or City Dweller. Add in some great insults like, 'Your lock stock and barrel reflected backward mind', before the track stutters into disconnected syllables, and you have a glorious Orwellian nightmare, a desperate dystopia is visioned.
You know how sometimes Fall albums often contain one really weird track of either experimentation, jokeiness, or randomness? think; WMC Blob 59, Light/Fireworks, Crew Filth, Papal Visit or Bonkers in Phoenix. Well the rest of this album contains four of these! Hold your limited edition hologram There's A Ghost in my House 12"s, we're going in.
The Unutterable track itself is a short spoken word with tapping piece; think Live at the Witch Trials. Pumpkin Soup and Mashed Potatoes is a cocktail jazz piece with electronic flutes, unique among the Falls discography. MES can be heard extolling the virtues of said dish. A surprisingly nutritious choice for MES, and I suppose, easy to manage if you leave your false teeth anywhere.
Hands Up Billy is written and sung by Nev Wilding also on guitar duties, it's a perfectly fine pop punky tune. However there remains something wrong about anyone other than MES or his wife/girlfriend singing whole tracks on Fall albums.
Midwatch 1953 stretches the patience with it's repetition of two sentences over a lengthy strum, amist bloops, presumably there to evoke submarines as in said film.
Of much more worth is Devolute, a kind of state of the nation address with two overlapped vocals, al la VU's The Murder Mystery. MES really explores the cadences of his lyrics on this one, as MES bemoans an English Glasnost and asks the horric question, 'what would life be like without music and comedy', a hidden gem.
The album ends with Das Katerer, a re-versioning of spoken word piece The Caterer from The Post Nearly Man. Really funny, the music is basically the keyboard riff from Free Range, with MES in his caretaker guise from Glow Boys, 'Chicken and chips off the bone'.
In retrospect the last quarter of this album now seems to suggest that MES was still trying to find a Fall group he was happy with, as many of the tracks are mainly MES solo effects and Grant Showbiz's excellent production. Next album Are You Are Missing Winner, would contain some great tracks, and live the group would improve. The Fall's studio output in 2001 would suffer in comparison to The Unutterable, due to it's lack of production, and reliance on a Fall group, who weren't up to scratch in the studio without a producer to guide the way, evidence that although MES is The Fall, and without his presence there is nothing, the contributions of others are the building blocks through which MES must build his vision.
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