Day 62: One endless pursuit of women.

Here's a Fall track so of its time it's unreal. It appeared on 1996's The Light User Syndrome and sounds like an amalgam of what makes the fall recognisable, but also has britpop and guitar music from that era's stamp, really good! I kinda miss the kinds of bands this reminds me of, the likes of Elastica, Sleeper, Echobelly and on a another level, Dinosaur Jnr, Sebadoh and a bit of dream-pop/shoegaze like Ride or My Bloody Valentine.



Song: Spinetrak
Album: The Light User Syndrome
Year: 1996

The whole sound and production of this track brings to mind the bands I've already mentioned, the riff on here actually sounds a hell of a lot like the one used on one of my favourite songs Behind The Counter, but with a style like The Fall's there are bound to be brief crossovers. One notable element of this track is Brix's breathy exhalations over the verses, sexy or just disturbing? I'm a bit freaked out by it to be honest, her backing vocals are actually brilliant here otherwise, the wailing over the 'chorus' double-tracked with her vocals complete that dreamy element. Mark's vocals are delivered under a layer of fuzz, I can imagine live, Brix would take centre-stage and Mark would be skulking in the background, his lines deliver elements of a circus master at work 'let the sideshow begin' and some of a more macabre nature: 'spine clicked and came out of its box'.

I'd like to think of the phrase 'spinetrak' as an internal compass, no idea if that's what good ol' MES would think, but with Brix singing the chorus as she does, it sounds devoted, maybe it is the whole adage of men thinking with their groins and women thinking with their heads, the line: 'On endless pursuit of women/And desire to impress them' it certainly fits with his often-mentioned hatred of overt sexuality and behaviour (Slates. Slags etc. for example).

This song is definitely one of their more memorable ones, a chorus you can sing along with, almost an overdose of pop signatures taking over, for a rare change, MES is almost a footnote on this song, it belongs to Brix and the rest of the band.