Longtime Fall fan John Doran of the Quietus recently suggested the current Fall lineup had got “too comfortable” to rank with the very best iterations of Mark E Smith’s group. What seems to be album No 31 certainly has its share of Fall-by-numbers, in which the bass grinds on, keyboards trace spindly patterns, and Smith grumbles in one of his incomprehensible and terrifying voices – Pledge and Black Door certainly fit that description. But there are surprises, too – Junger Cloth offers the faint but unmistakeable influence of West African pop, albeit in a version that’s not going to get them on Africa Express anytime soon. And there are two songs that enter the Fall pantheon: Venice With the Girls opens the album with snarling garage rock, and Smith’s voice sounding as clear as it did 30 years ago, while the 10-minute Auto-Chip 14-15 ebbs and flows, a tide washing up on the same beach over and over and over again. It’s magnificent.
