Day 113: Don't look at me that way!

Hello all, I hope you are all still out there, I have been utterly rubbish, end of January so back after about 6 weeks of slackness.

I've changed the actual outlook of this blog, from a daily thing to a twice-weekly promise, if I break it you can email me and complain.

Anyway, happy 2012, hope people are still ragging Ersatz GB to death, I still am and I picked up Slates on CD at last over Christmas (HMV had an offer on) great stuff, got a version with some live stuff and some session stuff on, well worth the fiver.

Today's offering is off The Wonderful and Frightening World... and is a nice bit of lighter-end Fall.



Song: Oh! Brother
Album: The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall
Year: 1984

So this is a bouncy little number, and appears to have an almost Roxy Music feel to it, Mark is squealing in parts and it sounds like his vocals are either heavily reverbed or more likely, multi-tracked (big 80s production). The drums are equally big and cut through the very lofty sounding guitars. The refrain almost sounds a bit Smiths, which of course is a sin when it comes to MES, wrong side of the tracks and all that. The music is underpinned with what sounds like multiple glasses being smashed, what are we talking here, bottles, pint glasses or something a bit more decadent, might even be a studio window for all I know and who knows when it's The Fall.

The lyrics could be taken at face value (boring I know) and could indeed be about an older sibling talking about his little brother and apparently his descent into communism (he dissapeared through a red door) and the pleading lines like "Won't you give me one more chance?/I'm not a communist" have this almost theatrical feel to them, like a last chance stand-off, which jars with the jaunty music, giving it that old Fall feel, nice music, sinister subject matter.

I also appreciate the not-so-serious backing vocals, makes this one of the rare occassions of this period where The Fall sound is cluttered, which is a good thing.