Palace of Swords Reversed

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ALBUM INFORMATION
EDITOR'S PICK

Total Tracks: 12   Total Length: 45:03

eMusic Review

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Andrew Perry

eMusic Contributor

04.22.11
A whistle-stop tour of early-’80s Fall.
2003 | Label: Cog Sinister / Voiceprint

This compilation offers a whistle-stop tour of early-'80s Fall, when, sonically, they'd really dug their heels in, prolifically spewing forth slanted, bilious lo-fi alternatives to skinny-tied chart pop. The first track, punningly entitled “Prole Art Threat,” is particularly string-scraping and caustic, railing against the liberal left's “wetness” — the Fall's label at the time, the well-meaning indie Rough Trade, were offended and dumped them. Also from the Slates EP, “An Older Lover Etc,” about drunken liaisons at office parties, directly presages the agonising comedy of Steve Coogan and Ricky Gervais (both Fall fans). “Fit and Working Again,” by contrast, is acoustic, breezy — pretty, almost — and on “Totally Wired,” Smith turned his amphetamine-pumped creative process (“I drunk a jar of coffee, then I took some of these”) into a rumbling post-punk anthem.

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Totally Wired

Glyndwr1969

Worth getting just for the one track, an ode to amphetamine and coffee, and a dancefloor smash in mid 80s Manchester (lest anyone think that the Fall were just for miserable, trendy 'scum eggs' from the local colleges'). Also check 'Kicker Conspiracy' as the first intelligent song about football (a tradition recently evident on 'Theme from Sparta FC).

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Icon: The Fall

By Douglas Wolk

Roughly 75 people have been members of the Fall over the last three decades or so, but only one of them has been in every lineup: inimitable vocalist/lyricist/ranter Mark E. Smith, whose singular and monomaniacal vision drives the band. Smith's a bristling, hyperliterate, deeply eccentric presence, with a thick Manchester accent and a permanent scowl directed at a world that can't keep up with him; he's also got an ear for a riff like nobody's… more »

They Say All Media Guide

Calling this collection absolutely essential damns it with faint praise. A near-perfect compilation of the Fall’s early-’80s singles minus a track or two (“Lie Dream of a Casino Soul” and “Look, Know,” in particular), plus most of the Slates EP, Palace of Swords Reversed serves up 14 tracks of audio and lyrical brilliance. Nearly split evenly between the Marc Riley/Craig Scanlon days and when Scanlon was sole guitarist, Palace covers three years during which the band couldn’t seem to make a wrong step. Smith’s focus dwells on everything from the anxiety of influence to soccer hooliganism and video games, all grist for his dismissive mill. The trashing of neo-imperialist pretensions thanks to the Thatcher government and the Falkland Islands, “Marquis Cha-Cha” may not have the emotional tug of Elvis Costello’s “Shipbuilding,” but its black humor and vicious cut-downs on all fronts packs its own punch. Meanwhile, the anti-London demolition of “Leave the Capitol” is pure destruction, band and singer matched in equal power. Musically, meanwhile, there’s everything from nervous minimalism to brawling noise, everything turned toward the band’s own goal. “Totally Wired” features a great opening drum break from Paul Hanley before everyone piles into a building crash of sound, Smith, riding it all like a wave while trading off call and response vocals with his band about having “a jar of coffee/and then I took some of these!” There’s the barbed synth-pop nod on “The Man Whose Head Expanded,” sudden tempo shifts on “Pay Your Rates” and “Putta Block” — two of the band’s best charge-ahead-then-think-about-it numbers — and the slow upward crawl of “An Older Lover,” stripped down and the more unsettling for it. Special bonus points for the occasional bits of live performances, including the hilarious introduction to “Putta Block,” where after an audible screw-up Smith dryly notes, “Another dynamic entrance!” – Ned Raggett

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  • 02.12.11 The working class has been shafted So what the fuck you sneering at?
  • 02.12.11 Jingles! Cabaret! Merseybeat!
  • 02.12.11 Then they have Carl Lewis on He's got a ponytail and he's a vegan He talks a lot of wind
  • 02.12.11 Recruited some gremlins To get me clear of the airline routes
  • 02.12.11 I can't stick musicians. I can't stand them, and being stuck in a studio with them I think that's my strength I can hear what they can't.
  • 10.21.10 And so backwards I look back with a scalpel eye on afternoons wandering the city with a flapping bag of cans for company.
  • 10.21.10 None of the rubbish had been cleaned up. And there were all these ghouls around the rubble. Not one of them is helping.
  • 10.21.10 I am one of the 3 per cent who was made to take speed.
  • 10.17.10 We're living in a re-issue world, filching from the past like magpies with a Tardis.
  • 10.17.10 I always thought Peron was a good sort, a good chap, definitively not a tosser.
  • 10.13.10 For some odd reason they think they know best.
  • 10.13.10 They should have just stuck our heads on that painting called The Hustler - the one with the cats and dogs smoking drinking and playing pool
  • 10.12.10 If it's me and your granny on bongos, then it's a Fall gig.
  • 10.12.10 And all hard-core fiends will die by me and all decadent sins will reap discipline.
  • 10.12.10 All the film ghosts will rise up with the sexually abused and the new youth.
  • 10.12.10 In LA the window opener switch is like a dinosaur cackle, a pterodactyl cackle. Jet plane circle over imported trees.
  • 10.08.10 A shadow walks behind you.
  • 10.08.10 A figure walks behind you.
  • 10.08.10 When I'm dead and gone my vibrations will live on in vibes on vinyl through the years. People will dance to my waves.