The Light User Syndrome

by The Fall

Overview

The Fall's first post-Craig Scanlon album also introduced Julia Nagle, who took over keyboards from the departing Dave Bush and also contributed some guitar. Brix Smith and Karl Burns covered the rest of the guitar, and while Scanlon is missed, the end results work well enough. The crisp live edge to the recording is attractive, but oddly enough leaves a lot of space in the mix -- Mark E. Smith and Nagle's keyboards have pride of place along with Steven Hanley's bass guitar (give an ear to "Das Vulture Ans Ein Nutter-Wain" for an example). Smith himself seems to be searching for lyrics more than once, and while he comes up with a usual collection of acid-tongued zingers, other times he seems to be making vocal noise for the sake of it -- nothing wrong with that, but still, one expects more. Though the album takes a little while to get started, when it does, the winners start coming in droves, such as the attractive Smith/Brix duet "Spinetrap" and the nervy, brisk bite of "Oleano," which sounds like an endless alarm bringing out the paranoia. There's some fiery aggression flaring up more than once as well, as "He Pep!" and especially the lengthy, roaring clatter and blast of "Interlude/Chilinism" in particular show. The addition of another pretty/sharp exchange between Brix and Smith makes the latter all the more entertaining. In terms of unexpected covers, the Fall do have another winner -- Johnny Paycheck's "Stay Away (Old White Train)," sung by Smith with an appropriate if terribly amusing drawl. Speaking of singing -- more than once co-producer Mike Bennett shares the vocals with Smith, a surprising change to say the least! The odd geographical confusion track "Cheethan Hill" shows how well that can actually work, with Bennett taking a clearer lead while Smith, unsurprisingly, does the "sing from one room over" approach. ~ Ned Raggett

Product Details

Release Date:	04/21/2023
Label:	Music On Vinyl
UPC:	8719262027565
Rank:	52153

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Fall   Primary Artist
Steve Harley   Guitar (Bass)
Steve Hanley   Guitar (Bass)
Simon Wolstencroft   Drums
Mark E. Smith   Tape,Vocals
Karl Burns   Drums,Guitar,Vocals
Mike Bennett   Vocals
Brix Smith   Guitar,Vocals
Lucy Rimmer   Vocals

Technical Credits

Tony Bruno   Composer
Stephen Hanley   Composer
Steve Hanley   Composer
Julia Nagle   Composer
Simon Wolstencroft   Composer,Programming
Mark E. Smith   Composer,Producer
Johnny Paycheck   Composer
Karl Burns   Composer
Mike Bennett   Composer,Producer,Composer
Denis Blackham   Mastering
Brix Smith   Composer
Simon Spencer   Composer
Peter Cronin   Photography
Vic Millrose   Composer
Phil Rogers   Design
Warren Bassett   Engineer
Bob Elgin   Composer
Victor Millrose   Composer
Stan Kahan   Composer