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| No, that release date isn’t a typo. Apologies. I’ve been sitting on this album (not literally) for nigh on three months now. You might think you’re in for some incredibly insightful criticism to justify such a lengthy gestation period; in which case, well, you’ll be bitterly disappointed, and not for the last time in this crushingly futile existence, I’ll bet. |
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I wasn’t bitterly disappointed, though, when I heard The Fall of Mary, as it’s quite good. No less authority than Uncut magazine - which I’ve always avoided, assuming it to be some kind of bizarrely specific gay porn, but which turns out to be some kind of top pop mag - describes it as “clever, spiky, lo-fi post rock”, but then about 95% of music released these days gets described as clever, spiky, lo-fi post rock.
No, what we’ve got here is a good, old-fashioned alternative guitar rock record, influenced largely by lo-fi American types, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that as far as I’m concerned. Opening tracks ‘Red Wagon’ and ‘Tread on Flowers Pt 1’ kick things off in fine style, both fitting into the raucous-noise-pop bracket, with fuzzy guitars influenced by Pavement and the like, while the more downbeat songs like ‘Conan: the College Years’ have more of a Velvet Underground kinda feel.
Despite the band’s “spiky”, “angular” and generally not-very-nice-to-touch sound, the whole thing’s shot through with a sensible pop sensibility, and the synths and female backing vocals balance things out nicely. Only when the band’s muso influences get the better of them - such as on the plodding ‘Mary IV’, which goes on for a criminal nine minutes - does your correspondent’s famously limited attention start to wander.
All things considered, a pleasant surprise, and what more can any of us hope for these days? And now, if you’ll excuse me, I must hastily file this review before the editor angrily reclaims the promo CD, pausing only to batter me to death with it. |
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| Mat Beal - 8/10 |
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