39. The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent (2008)

One of the remarkable things about The Fall is how they always bounce back from an under par record (still better than your new favorite indie band's best album), to create something quite astounding. Long time Fall watchers have learnt never to write them off. Think about it, after Room To Live came Perverted by Language; after Curious Orange came Extricate; after Are You Are Missing Winner came Country On The Click.
So it was with Imperial Wax Solvent which came after Reformation Post TLC. IWS was a real reformation if you think about it, showcasing a new line up which is pretty intact to this day. Peter Greenway, Keiron Melling, Eleni Poulou, Dave Spurr, MES, and always a mark of quality - Grant Showbiz on production.

This new line up hit upon a darker seam of the country'n'northernkrautgarage than the previous US group were able to muster, unafraid to experiment and bringing more to the fore Eleni's keyboards which were starting to shade the tracks with a grotty sci-fi mood.
The album starts with Alton Towers an attempt at a Mansion style intro with a foreboding ghostly keyboard line, although not quite epic enough. MES sets the dystopian scene where 'The spawn of J. 'Loaded' Brown and L. Leverne are laughing, and their sons are singing songs'. Sadly that future has now come to pass. James Brown as the editor of Loaded mag once infamously interviewed MES, which resulted in MES trying to stub his fag into J.Browns face for asking stupid questions, Lauren Laverne however interviewed MES briefly on TV and made a joke about sacking his wife, MES was visibly put out and she's been on the shit list ever since.
Incidentally on Bronx in a 6 from Sleaford Mods latest Key Markets, they rant 'Lauren Leverne keeps playing Tumbling Dice', and manage to make it sound the the saddest line going, choked me up when I heard it first live.
Wolf Kidult Man perhaps concerns some mollycoddled child man, but who knows. A great garage racket nonetheless, maybe the deep crunching bass synth and sinister samples point at a deeper meaning. All Fall lyrics resist easy interpretation, just look at the scholars of http://annotatedfall.doomby.com/ endlessly decipher meanings into these words.
50 Year Old Man achieved instant Fall classic status, perhaps one of two tracks from here that would make a best of the Fall tape. An 11min epic of hammering garage trance, MES utilizing his growl in the paranoid vision, 'Steve Albini is in collusion with Virgin trains against me'; which compliment 2015's claims that Pierce Brosnin is selling MES bed wet pills. I mean who among us can honestly stand up and say this is not true! The track then seems to dissasemble before our ears, MES tells us he pisses on hotel towels, and before you realise it you're listening to a banjo hoedown and MES is laughing at you. Cut back into an even fiercer riff and fade out to MES 'I'm an inferior product man'.



Eleni takes lead vocal on I've Been Duped, opportunity for MES to take a rest when played live. The topic being shit TV, a favorite of MES. Contains the memorable line about 'two hairy men digging up Scotland', Hey I saw that episode!
Strange Town is a cover of an early 70's Groundhogs tune from highly recommended album Thank Christ For The Bomb, an under recognized band. You can't beat the original though.



Next come two less appreciated but great tunes, Tureg and Can Can Summer. Tureg is a short instrumental piece, but with a lovely driving synth melody. There was an even better version with some whispered MES lyrics used as an intro tape at gigs, available online if you look hard enough. Can Can Summer is one of my favorite Fall tracks of recent years, rarely played live, presumably due to the tricksy funk rhythm and abrupt cuts. This track is like funk in negative, an itchy groove demanding that you sit still, MES barking orders to resist dancing 'change back', 'stop twitching', 'turn the radio off', 'you are no dog' The meaning remains vague, but I always think of this as an attack on groups like LCD Soundsystem and Talking Heads who MES dislikes. MES's anti showbiz heads down funk, that shouts in your ear every time you start tapping your foot.



Tommy Shooter is another great track, perhaps the best on this record. A strumming choogle supports  dread filled evocative lyrics, one of his WW2 tracks with dire warnings, darkening sky's and the brilliant line 'Reduce your knees to noodles, your Doberman Pinschers to Poodles'.

Thereafter the album tends to tail off a bit, Latch Key Kid, Is This New and Senor Twilight Stock Replacer are solid and fast paced but inessential, the latter too similar to the unbeatable Guest Informant. In 2008 The Fall appeared on US live in the studio show From the Basement and bettered the versions of some of these tracks, sad that we'll never have a radio session from this period, this is the closest to that.



The album ends with the scabrous and short Exploding Chimney, possibly about venereal disease. A true lost classic which to be honest I had forgotten about but must rank amongst their recent best.
Imperial Wax Solvent would start a run of top form leading to the also great Your Future Our Clutter