The Fall-Sub-Lingual Tablet (2015)

The Fall-Sub-Lingual Tablet (2015)

“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”

Margaret Thatcher

By: Ghost Writer

Although a new The Fall record should come as a surprise, we all know that they are one of the hardest working bands delivering almost every year new and exciting material, and Sub-Lingual Tablet is no exception, is a hard hitting new record full of intense playing and Mark E. Smith venom spewing vocals, opener Venice with the Girls sounds as a hit of the latest incarnation of Iggy and The Stooges, moving on a straight line without much detours but full of maniac intensity, all based on Smith vocal inflections and some interesting noise burst on the road.

For some reason the shiny 70s keyboards on Black Door are repulsive to me, but they add an interesting texture to this post punk band truly inspired on 60s garage and 70 psychedelics, and there is also some powerful sounds on the background, unfortunately obscured by Smith vocals, while on Dedication Not Medication bass makes a powerful entrance in the game and the band goes back to its post punk roots adding some dance moves to the already turbulent mix, but in the end the song is a lot of texture and little substance, but First One Today with its La Bamba like guitar lines in the background and psychedelic keyboards ends up stealing the show, is disjointed, weird and dissonant, just as the sound we all expect coming from this unpredictable band who are able to deliver the goods in this theme.

Almost Beefheartian drums serve as openers in Junger Cloth another powerful theme thanks to the hotter than hell interplay between keys and drums players, a powerful reminder of what The Fall is all about on this record, with Smith sometimes hiding in the backgrounds listening to the whole thing, coming sometimes as a demonic, not so blues based version of the great Don Van Vliet, and then going really hardcore on the monstrous Stout Man, where all hell breaks loose and Smith sounds more venomous than ever, this time creating the kind of sound that the actual version of Iggy and the Stooges would certainly kill for.

Bass snake like lines start on Auto Chip 2014-2016, in a way this is a homage to krautrock´s motorik beats, a big influence (mainly Can) on Smith, who sounds happy here driving down the autobahn, and then in the next song sounding really weird, akin a lot to the mighty The Residents, in a tune called Pledge, a beautiful noisy thing that unfortunately ends up going nowhere, although some abrasive guitars appears at times.

There are some confusing things on this Sub-Lingual Tablet, like the funky Snazzy, which again ends up without much direction or intensity, plain filler, which is a terrible thing for a band whose output is rarely that, but they return quickly to compact and intense form on Fibre Book Troll, with abrasive sounds at their service, and Smith really going for the throat, again, in what seems to be one of the best tunes in this collection.

In the end, Sub-Lingual Tablet is definitely not one of the best records The Fall has produced lately, but is a matter of the high standard the band has set before, when they get measured against it, is really unfair for the band and hard for them to achieve another classic, but we know that they will be doing it anytime in the future, in the meantime we can assure that this is a great record, one that a lot of more younger bands will kill for, and that is just what we finally expect form The Fall, no big changes, and great tunes.