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Grotesque (After the Gramme)
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Grotesque (After the Gramme)
Grotesque (After the Gramme) is the third studio album by the English band the Fall. Released on 17 November 1980, it was the band's first studio album on Rough Trade.
The album reached number one on the UK Independent Chart, spending 29 weeks on the chart in total.
This was the first album for drummer Paul Hanley (Steve Hanley's younger brother), who joined the Fall earlier in the year, aged 15. Kay Carroll, the group's manager, played kazoo on "New Face in Hell" and added backing vocals. Grotesque was recorded at Cargo Studios in Rochdale and Street Level in London, with production by the group and Grant Showbiz, Geoff Travis and Mayo Thompson.
The album was preceded by two acclaimed singles, "How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'" and "Totally Wired", which were included on CD reissues of the album. The colour sleeve (the group's first) was drawn by Smith's sister, Suzanne.
According to the Slates & Dates press release, this album was, at one point, to be titled After the Gramme – The Grotesque Peasants.
The Fall's music at the time was described as "Mancabilly", and by Smith himself as "Country 'n' Northern". The album opens with "Pay Your Rates", the lyric described as one that "excoriates small-minded conformity". Second track "English Scheme" was seen as Smith "sneering at the middle class liberals". "New Face in Hell" takes its name from the 1968 film P. J. which was retitled New Face in Hell in the UK. It has been described as "a paranoid tale of sinister government agencies 'disappearing' innocent amateur radio hams". "C'n'C–S Mithering" was seen by AllMusic reviewer Ned Raggett as "a brilliant vivisection of California and its record business, and the attendant perception of the Fall themselves", and by Stereogum's Robert Ham as "his sprawling screed at the vapidity of the music industry". The song makes reference to the band's meeting with A&M Records co-founder Herb Alpert ("big A&M Herb was there") while seeking an American record deal. Side one closes with "The Container Drivers", which Al Spicer described as "[shattering] the stereotype of the noble trucker, depicting a world of loudmouthed ignorance and bowel-rotting gluttony".
The second side opens with "Impression of J. Temperance", a "stark, mud-stained tale of cloning gone horribly wrong". "In the Park" deals with outdoor sex. "W.M.C. – Blob 59" combines lo-fi tape recordings of rehearsals and conversations. "Gramme Friday" was described as a "hymn to amphetamines". The album's closing track, "The N.W.R.A" ("The North Will Rise Again", not, as some supposed, "The North West Republican Army") was viewed by AllMusic as "Smith's own take on the long-standing "soft south/grim north" dichotomy in English society", while Robert Ham saw it as "a literary vision of political upheaval in Northern England". Rolling Stone merely saw it as Smith shouting out his hometown.
In contemporary reviews, Johnny Waller, reviewing Grotesque for Sounds, hailed the album as "rock n' roll with a conscience". Critic Robert Christgau described it simply as "poetry readings with two-chord backing". NME writer Graham Lock was more reserved in his praise, deeming it the Fall's "least flawed album" while suggesting that the band had yet to reach their full potential. Chris Westwood of Record Mirror viewed it as a disappointment, finding that the band's cynical outlook had become predictable.
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Grotesque (After the Gramme)
Grotesque (After the Gramme) is the third studio album by the English band the Fall. Released on 17 November 1980, it was the band's first studio album on Rough Trade.
The album reached number one on the UK Independent Chart, spending 29 weeks on the chart in total.
This was the first album for drummer Paul Hanley (Steve Hanley's younger brother), who joined the Fall earlier in the year, aged 15. Kay Carroll, the group's manager, played kazoo on "New Face in Hell" and added backing vocals. Grotesque was recorded at Cargo Studios in Rochdale and Street Level in London, with production by the group and Grant Showbiz, Geoff Travis and Mayo Thompson.
The album was preceded by two acclaimed singles, "How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'" and "Totally Wired", which were included on CD reissues of the album. The colour sleeve (the group's first) was drawn by Smith's sister, Suzanne.
According to the Slates & Dates press release, this album was, at one point, to be titled After the Gramme – The Grotesque Peasants.
The Fall's music at the time was described as "Mancabilly", and by Smith himself as "Country 'n' Northern". The album opens with "Pay Your Rates", the lyric described as one that "excoriates small-minded conformity". Second track "English Scheme" was seen as Smith "sneering at the middle class liberals". "New Face in Hell" takes its name from the 1968 film P. J. which was retitled New Face in Hell in the UK. It has been described as "a paranoid tale of sinister government agencies 'disappearing' innocent amateur radio hams". "C'n'C–S Mithering" was seen by AllMusic reviewer Ned Raggett as "a brilliant vivisection of California and its record business, and the attendant perception of the Fall themselves", and by Stereogum's Robert Ham as "his sprawling screed at the vapidity of the music industry". The song makes reference to the band's meeting with A&M Records co-founder Herb Alpert ("big A&M Herb was there") while seeking an American record deal. Side one closes with "The Container Drivers", which Al Spicer described as "[shattering] the stereotype of the noble trucker, depicting a world of loudmouthed ignorance and bowel-rotting gluttony".
The second side opens with "Impression of J. Temperance", a "stark, mud-stained tale of cloning gone horribly wrong". "In the Park" deals with outdoor sex. "W.M.C. – Blob 59" combines lo-fi tape recordings of rehearsals and conversations. "Gramme Friday" was described as a "hymn to amphetamines". The album's closing track, "The N.W.R.A" ("The North Will Rise Again", not, as some supposed, "The North West Republican Army") was viewed by AllMusic as "Smith's own take on the long-standing "soft south/grim north" dichotomy in English society", while Robert Ham saw it as "a literary vision of political upheaval in Northern England". Rolling Stone merely saw it as Smith shouting out his hometown.
In contemporary reviews, Johnny Waller, reviewing Grotesque for Sounds, hailed the album as "rock n' roll with a conscience". Critic Robert Christgau described it simply as "poetry readings with two-chord backing". NME writer Graham Lock was more reserved in his praise, deeming it the Fall's "least flawed album" while suggesting that the band had yet to reach their full potential. Chris Westwood of Record Mirror viewed it as a disappointment, finding that the band's cynical outlook had become predictable.