Track Listing

1. Pay Your Rates
2. English Scheme
3. New Face In Hell
4. C 'n' C-S Mithering
5. The Container Drivers
6. Impression Of J. Temperence
7. In The Park
8. WMC-Blob 59
9. Gramme Friday
10. The NWRA
11. How I Wrote Elastic Man
12. City Hobgoblins
13. Totally Wired
14. Putta Block
15. Interview WIth Mark E. Smith

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16417 in Music
• Released on: 2008-02-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Dimensions: .23 pounds
• Running time: 63 minutes

CD Description
1980's GROTESQUE, The Fall's third studio album, is considered one of the band's most difficult and threatening works-even by Fall fans. Consisting mostly of one-chord live-in-the-studio jams that veer between Hasil Adkins-style crazed rockabilly and Mekons-esque deliberate sloppiness-verging-on-incompetence, the album is one of the ultra-prolific band's most extreme and aggressive statements. As would be the case with such future noisemongers as My Bloody Valentine or SonicYouth, the cacophony becomes so persistent that it creates its own sort of off-kilter beauty. Above this racket, theorist/provocateur Mark E. Smith bellows and sneers his sociopolitical broadsides, most effectively on "Pay Your Rates" and the almost-melodic "Impression of J. Temperance." GROTESQUE is not for the timid, but its pleasures are many for those who can withstand the surface discord.

Customer Reviews

C 'n' N Music is born!
Right. Iam bored at home so im going to review every Fall album i own which is a fair few. so here we go with grotesque.
Definatly one of their best and the beginning of my favorite period for the Fall this is a must for any Fall FAN an a good starter for newbies. Classic Fall. The album you play to people who want to know what they sound like. Pay your rates is the perfect opener MES on top form. English scheme has great lyrics which go on and on over the catchy as hell keyboard melody. C'n'c's Mithering is one of Mark's best rants- all about the music biz and their recent tours of USA. one of my favorite tracks however which i didnt think much of first is Impression of J temperance which is i think, about a dog breeders fondness for his dogs and a birth- of something. Pure horror!
get this version with the reissue extra track malarky and u get the excellent How i wrote elastic man and other great tunes.
the sleevenotes are great too. Bah!

This Album = Classic
I first got into The Fall (or F All) listening to the Rough Trade compilation "Totally Wired", and thinking "Oh my God, where has this been all my life!!???". I loved the raw, home grown feel of that album, and love this equally as much. This album is good old fashioned "have a go" rock and roll. Buy it now!

Mark E Smith, the last of the great English poets.

If hope springs eternal here's proof!!!!!!!!!!
The re-release of the deluxe version of "Grotesque" is a non-Fall fans and a avis Fall fans wet dream.The album is culled from their early output.It comes in the original packaging(jazzed up ever so slightly) and the album is full of classics, I'am talking about "New Face In Hell" , "English Scheme" , " The Impressions Of J. Temperence" and "The N.W.R.A." . As well as an album brimming with brilliance you get 5(thats Five) versions of "Rowche Rumble" (Mega-single) and 2 versions of the B-side (Just as Mega) "In My Area". Their is only one problem, a good problem for you first time buyers, once you buy this you'll want to own everything The Fall have produced over the years and they've been a hard-working band which means a lot of albums both studio and live, I'm not telling you how many, see how many you can find. Their still performing today, they have changed line-ups numerous times and their last release was a 5-star release if their ever was one. They tour regularly, even with the enigmatic leader of the band Mark E. Smith in a wheel chair from a recent accident on a U.K. tour, he still went off and toured the U.S.A. until another member of the band suffered with food poisoning. So you have a lot to look forward too, further studio work, more live material both tours and releases on CD. I wish it was me starting all over again.Get the faith, as none other than John Peel stated, "The Fall are how all other bands are to be judged."