6. The Fall – Shift-Work
For as long as I can remember I’ve always loved The Fall, but my first introduction probably would’ve been through John Peel. I had a review of Perverted By Language on my bedroom wall; I was always into Grotesque, that was my album, and Slates, the 10” that came out round about the same time – but then my favourite era is the Brix era. The Wonderful and Frightening World Of, and This Nation’s Saving Grace… every time I put them on they still blow me away. I really love The Unutterable as well, which came quite a lot later. The Fall have done so much that you can just dip in and dip out.
I went to their album launch party for Extricate, which I was really excited about, because it was like, you know, the band, The Charlatans, had opened a door that meant that I could go to a party celebrating Mark E. Smith’s new work, and that made me feel really good. I got there early, and the only person there was Mark, sitting at the bar! Believe it or not we had a good time talking.
After that, The Charlatans did what we did, and I missed the album after, which was Shift-Work – and so I only really started listening to this one recently. It’s probably not my favourite of all time…it’s just my favourite of all time at this moment, you know. Recently it’s been my go-to Fall album.
