THE FALL: Your Future Our Clutter (Just Music)
There is no in-between with The Fall — you either love them or you hate them.
And with the band releasing 28 studio albums and 30 live albums in the past 34 years, if you haven’t decided which side of the fence you sit on, you obviously haven’t listened to them enough.
Regardless of where you stand on The Fall, the band’s new album, Your Future Our Clutter, is as good a place as any to finally make up your mind.
It features the same line-up of The Fall that recorded 20 08’s Imperial Wax Solvent, which is in itself a pretty amazing feat, considering that the band has had a whopping 39 members between 19 76 and 20 10, with front man Mark E Smith the only constant.
So let’s get down to brass tacks: Your Future Our Clutter is one of the finest Fall albums produced and stands up alongside classics like Slates, Hex Education Hour, This Nation’s Saving Grace and Bend Sinister.
Opening with the stomping groove, Y.F.O.C. Showcase, it establishes its shit-kicking credentials pretty early on, which are only reinforced when the second track, Bury Pts 1 & 3, kicks in.
Although part one is a fuzzy, lo-fi punk number, after a minute and 30 seconds we get the higher fidelity part three, a sinister post-punk gem that will have you dancing around the room as Smith spits venom.
Another highlight, Mexico Wax Solvent, is a groove-laden number that has a nice electro feel to it, similar in style to Smith’s collaboration with Mouse on Mars for the Von Südenfed project.
All up, Your Future Our Clutter sees The Fall returning to highs they haven’t reached in decades, which is great news for Fall fans and those who are yet to be converted. — Lloyd Gedye
M.I.A.: Maya (Just Music)
When I was introduced to M.I.A.’s music, it was a bit like that joyous first encounter with Salman Rushdie — finally something new and alive.
Her sound was madcap and beyond classification, encompassing rap, electronica, punk, world sounds and obscure guest artists. And the former Sri Lankan refugee was out to make a political point, too.
I was an instant fan. Her second album, Kala, reached mainstream appeal thanks to Slumdog Millionaire‘s adoption of Paper Planes. But then came that New York Times article, the tide of public opinion turned against her, and we were left with her third offering, Maya: part noise, part cut-and-paste activism and part trying way too hard. If you’re new to M.I.A. stick with Kala, or better yet, her first album Arular.
If you’re a diehard like me, go ahead and buy Maya. It gets better with time. She makes us work hard this time but we’ll do it because we love her and will wait for her to get over her own hype and back to being a post-modern anti-pop genius. — Verashni Pillay
TOM JONES: Praise & Blame (Universal)
An initial listening to Praise & Blame, Tom Jones’s collection of blues and gospel, might remind you of the first time you browsed the writings of St Teresa of Avila.
Just as it would have struck you as slightly creepy to read of St Teresa moaning with sweet pain as God’s angel pierced her with his “long spear of gold”, it’s slightly jarring to hear the lewdly honeyed voice of the man who brought us Sex Bomb singing, “If I give my soul to Jesus, will she take me back again?” (If I Give My Soul).
Many will see those lyrics as a metaphor for a possible transactional rationale behind this album — Jones dabbling in gospel to try to achieve a different kind of audience. After all, the appeal of a 70-year-old sex symbol must be vanishingly small, except in a very specialised market.
The PR surrounding this album seems to give credence to that. The hype included the vice-president of the record company, who signed Jones on for £1,5-million in the hope of some charting hits, apparently emailing his colleagues demanding that they cancel the project immediately or “get my money back”.
It’s the kind of cosmological tale that would appeal to those who lapped up Rick Rubin’s Johnny Cash reinventions. And there’s a lot to like about Praise & Blame, especially a strangely appealing MOR version of John Lee Hooker’s Burning Hell.
People who’ve never heard of Tom Jones and people who are rabid fans will both find this album appealing. Those of us who have only dipped into his oeuvre will have to work a little harder to make sense of it. — Chris Roper