Here's a schizophrenic one if there ever was one...
Song: Bournemouth Runner
Album: Bend Sinister
Year: 1986
Bend Sinister is becoming another fave of mine, this song should tell you why. Starting off all spooky and serious, it soon descends into a keyboard lick-led jaunt that John Shuttleworth would be proud of, I think they must have had the same Casio, who knows, maybe they bought it from the same shop.
When it finally kicks in, the contrast with the beginning is amazing, an upbeat, driving Fall tune that runs for a lengthy 6 minutes in total. Mark's vocals are incredible here, his timing impeccable and varied. The keyboards seem to do what they want over the whole thing, it's all very end-of-the-pier stuff, which may be intentional what with the location, one of Britain's many seaside resorts. Do Americans say seaside? Seems a bit tommy to me.
There's some amazing lines in here that are laugh-out-loud funny, stuff like: 'Our backdrop was friendly, heavy/ Often it would rumble into hotel/ And partake with us/ In diluted drink and dogmeat/ Of RAC-reccomended hostelry' this gives some amazing images, to imagine MES in a pokey bed and breakfast on Bournemouth's seafront is hilarious, but I love the lines about dog meat and the sneaky mention of the RAC. This is what I love about The Fall, no pretensions, just songs about real life, who else has songs about subjects as diverse?
This is again, a strange contrast of an album, the LP runs the gamut, from chirpy numbers like this to dystopian collages like US- 80s/90s and then a cover of Mr Pharmacist. Just shows you what the band can do, which is mainly surprise.
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