Grotesque (After the Gramme)

Grotesque (After the Gramme) is the third studio album by English band the Fall. Released on 17 November 1980, it was the band's first studio album on Rough Trade.

Grotesque (After the Gramme)
Studio album by
The Fall
Released17 November 1980
StudioCargo Studios, Rochdale/Street Level Studios, London
GenrePost-punk, lo-fi, experimental rock, art punk
Length41:21
LabelRough Trade
ProducerThe Fall, Geoff Travis, Grant Showbiz, Mayo Thompson
The Fall chronology
Totale's Turns (It's Now or Never)
(1980)		 Grotesque (After the Gramme)
(1980)		 Slates
(1981)

The single reached number one the UK Independent Chart, spending 29 weeks on the chart in total.[1]

Background and recording

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, singer Mark E. Smith's then-girlfriend and the band's manager, played kazoo on "New Face in Hell" and added backing vocals.[2] Grotesque was recorded at Cargo Studios in Rochdale and Street Level in London, with production by the band and Grant Showbiz, Geoff Travis and Mayo Thompson.[3]

The album was preceded by two acclaimed singles, "How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'" and "Totally Wired", which were subsequently included on CD reissues of the album. The colour sleeve (the group's first) was drawn by Smith's sister, Suzanne.[4]

According to the Slates & Dates press release, this album was, at one point, to be titled After the Gramme – The Grotesque Peasants.

Content

The Fall's music at the time was described as "Mancabilly", and by Smith himself as "Country 'n' Northern".[2][5] The album opens with "Pay Your Rates", the lyric described as one that "excoriates small-minded conformity".[5] Second track "English Scheme" was seen as Smith "sneering at the middle class liberals".[6] "New Face in Hell" takes its name from the 1968 film P. J. which was retitled New Face in Hell in the UK.[7] It has been described as "a paranoid tale of sinister government agencies 'disappearing' innocent amateur radio hams".[5] "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".[3][8] 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.[9] 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".[5]

The second side opens with "Impression of J. Temperance", a "stark, mud-stained tale of cloning gone horribly wrong".[5] "In the Park" deals with outdoor sex.[5] "W.M.C. – Blob 59" combines lo-fi tape recordings of rehearsals and conversations.[5] "Gramme Friday" was described as a "hymn to amphetamines".[5] The album's closing track, "The N.W.R.A" ("The North Will Rise Again", not, as some supposed, "The North West Republican Army")[10] was viewed by AllMusic as "Smith's own take on the long-standing "soft south/grim north" dichotomy in English society",[3] while Robert Ham saw it as "a literary vision of political upheaval in Northern England".[8] Rolling Stone merely saw it as Smith shouting out his hometown.[6]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
Christgau's Record GuideB[11]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[12]
Mojo[13]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[14]
Sounds[15]
Spin Alternative Record Guide9/10[16]

Johnny Waller, reviewing the album for Sounds, gave it five stars.[15] The album received a lukewarm reception from the NME, who described it as the band's "least flawed album".[17] Robert Christgau gave the album a B rating, describing it as "poetry readings with two-chord backing".[11] Trouser Press viewed the album "[removing] the Fall even further from the world of easy listening", describing the tracks as "mostly one-or-two-chord jams played too slowly to be hardcore, but structured similarly".[18]

Retrospective reviews were more positive. AllMusic opined that the band "really started hitting its stride" with this album, Ned Raggett commenting on the "sharp rockabilly leads and random art rock racket".[3] In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, Grotesque was described as "the first truly great Fall album".[6] Stereogum saw the band "hitting their creative stride as songwriters and players" on the album, stating "Some of it is still very tattered around the edges, but the majority of it finds that unique static charge that made their '80s work so compelling."[8]

In a 2018 list, "The 10 Best Albums by The Fall: Critic's Picks" from Billboard, Grotesque was included at number-5, the album's "slightly cleaner sound" noted, with "The N.W.R.A." and "The Container Drivers" picked out as highlights.[19] The album was included in Al Spicer's 1999 book Rock: 100 Essential CDs, in which he described it as "among the Fall's most powerful statements, and recorded by the most inventive of the band's constantly evolving line-ups".[5]

Reissues

Grotesque was first reissued through Castle Music in 1993.[2] In 1998, Cog Sinister, Mark E. Smith's own imprint, released a poorly mastered edition with significant vinyl noise. However, an improved edition followed almost immediately through Castle, adding four bonus tracks: "How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'", "City Hobgoblins", "Totally Wired" and "Putta Block", the last of these being slightly edited from the original "Totally Wired" single. The final and current edition, again on Castle, was properly remastered, including the four bonus tracks ("Putta Block" still being slightly cut) and a "self-interview" by Smith that had been used for promotional purposes upon the album's original release.

The original ten-track album was reissued on vinyl by the Turning Point label in 2002,[2] with a two-LP edition being issued by Earmark in 2005. The latter edition replicated the definitive track listing of the 2004 CD. It was released again on vinyl in 2016 by Superior Viaduct.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Mark E. Smith.

Side A
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Pay Your Rates"Smith2:58
2."English Scheme"Marc Riley, Craig Scanlon, Smith2:06
3."New Face in Hell"Riley, Scanlon, Smith5:40
4."C'n'C-S Mithering"Smith, Steve Hanley, Riley, Scanlon7:36
5."The Container Drivers"Riley, Scanlon, Hanley, Smith, Paul Hanley3:08
Side B
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Impression of J. Temperance"Riley, Scanlon, Smith4:20
2."In the Park"Smith1:43
3."W.M.C. – Blob 59"Smith1:19
4."Gramme Friday"Scanlon, Riley, Smith3:19
5."The N.W.R.A."Scanlon, Hanley, Smith9:08

Personnel
The Fall
Technical
gollark: It's a different channel.
gollark: However, you ARE to provide a webhook.
gollark: I'll have to see if I can do that per-channel. However, webhook.
gollark: It's in nonwebhook mode.
gollark: Cease.

References
  1. Lazell, Barry (1997) Indie Hits 1980-1989, Cherry Red Books, ISBN 0-95172-069-4, p. 84
  2. Strong, M. C. (2003) The Great Indie Discography, Canongate, ISBN 1-84195-335-0, pp. 63-4
  3. Raggett, Ned. "Grotesque (After the Gramme) – The Fall". AllMusic. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  4. Blincoe, Nicholas (26 April 2008). "Mark E Smith: wonderful and frightening". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  5. Spicer, Al (1999) Rock: 100 Essential CDs, Rough Guides, ISBN 1-85828-490-2, pp. 65-6
  6. Brackett, Nathan & Hoard, Christian (eds.) (2004) The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, Simon & Schuster Ltd., ISBN 978-0743201698, p. 293
  7. Pinkerton, Nick (2018) "Totally Wired", Film Comment, March/April 2018. Retrieved 7 March 2018
  8. Ham, Robert (2015) "Grotesque (After the Gramme) (1980)", stereogum.com, 12 February 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2018
  9. "Grotesque by The Fall ::: Reviews". www.alltime-records.com. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  10. Edge, Brian (1989). Paintwork: a Portrait of The Fall. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0711917408.
  11. Christgau, Robert (1990). "The Fall: Grotesque (After the Gramme)". Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. Pantheon Books. ISBN 0-679-73015-X. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  12. Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-85712-595-8.
  13. Harrison, Ian (October 2016). "Rebellious Jukebox". Mojo (275): 62–67.
  14. Gross, Joe (2004). "The Fall". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 292–95. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  15. Waller, Johnny (15 November 1980). "Fall-ing in Love Again". Sounds: 44.
  16. Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  17. Thompson, Dave (2003) A User's Guide to The Fall, Helter Skelter Publishing, ISBN 978-1900924573, p. 43
  18. Azerrad, Michael; Wolk, Douglas; Pattyn, Jay "Fall", Trouser Press. Retrieved 4 March 2018
  19. Dayal, Geeta (2018) "The 10 Best Albums by The Fall: Critic's Picks", Billboard, 25 January 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2018
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