It's hard to overstate the electro-magnetic force exerted by one nagging Manchester band named for an existentialist text. Scratch most unrepentant British indie-rock fanatics, and they will bleed Fall lyrics. Had Mark E Smith's 34-year-old band ever split up, the clamour for a reunion might have approached the levels now registered for the Smiths. Three Fall influencees leap out instantly: LCD Soundsystem (homages to Smith's vocal style), These New Puritans (named for a Fall track) and the reunited Pavement. Other sightings of the Fall-meme include Smith's cameo on a recent Gorillaz track, rasping, "Which way's north from here?"
This 247th Fall album finds Smith and his latest cohorts in spry and propulsive form. It just about deserves its billing as one of the better latter-day Fall-works. With more ex-members than the Manchester telephone directory, the ejector seat is always in full view of any musicians Smith cajoles into playing his music. But this lineup has been stable for three years and rocks convincingly.
Clarity isn't high on the list of tick-boxes required by diehard fans, but Your Future Our Clutter is cogently produced by Ross Orton (MIA). There are big wide grooves to fall into on OFYC Showcase and Mexico Wax Solvent. "The barbiturates are kicking in," snarls the 53-year-old Smith, who wrote portions of this album in a wheelchair recovering from a broken hip. If anything, the painkillers have imparted direction rather than disorientation.
The sinister Cowboy George takes the Fall on a gallop into the borderlands, while YFOC/Slippy Floor could happily go on for another six and a half minutes. Instead, it morphs into a collage of phone messages and tapping noises. Weather Report 2 closes the album with a threatening whisper: "You don't deserve rock'n'roll." Then Smith breathes in, as though to continue, and the recording cuts off, leaving you hanging on for the next instalment from Manchester's bard of spleen. They will never make another Hex Enduction Hour, and you could argue Smith's recent Von Südenfed side project is a more intriguing exposition of latter-day Smithery. But this latest permutation of the Fall's guitar prang, rhythmic swing, wonky electronics and declamatory zeal continues to sound the same, only different to every preceding Fall record, as John Peel once quipped.
