The Fall

Sub-Lingual Tablet

(Cherry Red)

Never more than two years apart since 1979, when a new studio recording from Mark E Smith and the current incarnation of The Fall fails to materialise, you'd be wise to start worrying about the dependability of death and taxes.

The current band, in which Smith and synth player Eleni Poulou are joined by guitarist Peter Greenway, bassist Dave Spurr and drummer Kieron Melling, is the longest-lived of the band's history and one track here, Black Roof, reunites Smith with Californian punk/psyche rockers Rob Barbato and Tim Presley from an earlier line-up, which suggests a man coming to some accommodation with the rest of the world. There is even cover version, Stout Man being credited Iggy Pop and James Williamson, although it is not a Stooges song that I am familiar with. That is another colour in a diverse album on which Smith displays a remarkable range of timbres in his characteristic vocal style. Venice with the Girls is a poppy opener and Quit iPhone closes the album in similar fashion, with Fibre Book Troll and Pledge! similarly concerned with contemporary connectivity, while Auto Chip 2014-2016 is a ten minute riff-rock epic.

I can't claim to be fully versed in the back catalogue, now exceeding thirty, but this superbly-titled set may be a new Fall classic.

Keith Bruce