Wednesday 30 March 2011

Day 16: This is not an Autobahn, it's an evil roundabout.

I'm investigating The Unutterable for a few days, its actually amazing, never thought to look into it before as I'd kind of written off the 90s stuff as a bit of a duff period, this comes in 2000 and is just brilliant. Here's a real dance music/electronica-inspired one off that album.



Song: Way Round
Album: The Unutterable
Year: 2000

This song reminds me totally of 'Couldn't Get Ahead' he sounds a bit drunk on this one, and the repetition of the line "I just can't find my way" adds to this comparison. Apparently the song is about his aversion to roundabouts, the chorus simply being "I hate roundabouts". This reminds me of the track on Middle Class Revolt ' called 'M5' which has the line I've named this post after, roundabout hate seems to be a common theme with Mr Mark Smith. Perhaps they make him feel queasy, those few seconds of inertia you experience if the driver takes it too fast?

He also mentions Vikings, glass-walled discos and the 1970s, giving a feeling of confusion and drunken wanderings channelling through this whirl of a song.

Who knows, but this track has a very Warp Records Feel, dark, vague and a little mysterious, proving that once again, MES has his finger on the pulse of new waves of music, he always absorbs the culture around him, but as Jon Peel once said: "The Fall are always different, always the same" they always retain that which makes them unique, but also change like a chameleon. This is a great example. MES doesn't even sound out of place with his vocal meanderings, and for a man of 42/43 at the time, doesn't sound like a sad old statesman of rock having a go at a hip musical style, impressive.

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