The Infotainment Scan

Imagine a very tasty cake, made by a very nice baker. But when the baker went to decorate it, she accidentally grabbed a tube of toothpaste instead of decorative frosting. Mark E Smith is that toothpaste. Not even Colgate, he’s a crest motherfucker. I almost gave this a 3, because the rest of what the band puts in is really tasty, but at the end of the day I don’t want toothpaste in every bite of cake.

This album sucked. I think the Wikipedia article summarized the vocals the best: "one-note delivery somewhere between amphetamine-spiked rant and alcohol-addled yarn"

Anyone in the possession of at least one partially functioning ear knows that the two greatest Fall albums are the the first one you heard and the last one you listened to. This is a truly great album and anyone who says otherwise is a cloth-eared fool.

I've been using this site to listen to an album a day for a month or two now and have never written a review until now. I'm motivated to do so here because of how negatively skewed it seems like reviews of this album are. I'd heard of The Fall before this but never bothered to try listening to them. I assumed they were like an Echo and the Bunnymen or Police situation -- pretty straight-forward guitar rock but lumped into more unique company because of their time period. This album was a surprise and after reading more, I'm excited to hear other albums from their decades of activity. The best of this sounds more like Can or Suicide or VU than I would have guessed. It's not mainstream rock masquerading as art. It's more like art in a rock and roll coat. They also remind me of other niche-90s acts like Lungfish, Dave Fridman era Mercury Rev, and other "talky-singer" bands but the fact that the Fall has decades of catalog interests me a LOT Granted, some tracks (A Past Gone Mad) are dated "madchester" sounding relics, but I'm guessing those tracks were their concession to the times. Overall there's some timeless stuff here. Standouts for me: It's a Curse League of Bald Headed Men I'm not rating 5 because it's not a GREAT or PERFECT album but I'm rating 4 because it's surprisingly good and wayy better than I would have guessed.

Day 29 of Albums You Must Hear... The Fall is an English post-punk rock band that was impressively active from the late 70’s up until a couple of years ago. I have never heard of them, and to my knowledge, I’ve never heard any of their songs. (They have released over thirty recorded albums). The album from The Fall that I received today is titled The Infotainment. While listening to this band, I really enjoyed the music, however, I really disliked the singer, Mark E. Smith’s vocal style. The half speaking, half singing style seemed very dated for 1993. Smith also has a trait of ending most of his words with an overly used annunciation of “ah”.. Here’s an example, on the song It’s a Curse, a song with a nice and heavy guitar riff, Smith sings/says “Cracked-ah, curse-ah, disliked-ah...” his use of “ah” after nearly every word started to really grate on my nerves and it’s done on seemingly every song. The opening track, Ladybird (Green Grass) has a super funky bass line and riff and is probably my favorite song on this album, and while he is singing a bit more than speaking, Smith’s style just takes me out of it, like the rest of the album. Being that vocalist and founder of the band Mark E. Smith is the only constant member of The Fall over the years that saw many line up changes, I could see why no one really stood up to suggest that maybe he try changing his style to match the times. It’s a shame because the musicians really jammed out on this album but their flame-ah to me-ah was-ah smothered-ah by-ah Smith-ah. Next album please!! Please share your thoughts, memories and opinions!

Marmite band…. And I love them. This is a fantastic album! Full of dry wit and oddball lyrics.

Mark E Smith is a legend. I like the mix of classic Fall sounds and dance music. The sneering lyrics and dark atmosphere were amazing.

Want the sound of a drunk playing a bass shouting in a dustbin? You've got it. Not as bad as it sounds. BT: Ladybird (Green Grass), Paranoia Man in Cheap Shit Room, The League of Bald-Headed Men

sometimes interesting instrumentals, but I personally can’t stand the singer

Wow! I knew the cover of Lost In Music, but this is just a great album. Rave-punk with Mark E Smith bellowing his madness all over it. I've fallen in love with it - was always warm but not hot on The Fall, bit perhaps this was the album I needed to make me a convert. 10/10

The Fall is one of those bands who have a vast and largely consistent discography, which makes it hard to know where to begin. So, thanks to 1001 for pointing me to this album. I do enjoy Mark E Smith's idiosyncratic vocal delivery but I can see why it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. It's like a drunk man under hypnosis.

While the album has some decent post-punk bones, it's ruined by some really terrible early-90s electronic trash. At times I was able to look past that and enjoy the very Stooges-esque spoken-word vocals but it was always wrecked by the bloopy-blippy, synthetic trash that covers the whole album like bubblegum-flavored syrup on pancakes. Nobody wants that. Stop it.

Peak post punk 4/5

I can see that this album polarises people, but I loved it.

The band are great and if you can tolerate Smith’s idiosyncratic vocal style this is a decent post punk record full of northern grit, swagger and cynical wit.

You never quite know what a Fall album is going to sound like, but you know whatever they do, it’s going to sound like The Fall. Does that make sense? I think it does.

I love Mark Smith's vocal style - insouciant, almost bemused, but the lyrics are all business, elegantly phrased but really acidic. I would hate to get on the wrong end of this guy's pen. This is old school social commentary that burns, pure punk in attitude, but smarter. Fave Songs: A Past Gone Mad, It's a Curse, The League of Bald-Headed Men, Lost in Music, Ladybird (Green Grass)

Wasn't sure what to expect, since I confused The Fall with The Cure before queuing up the album. An interesting mix of sounds. Took me a while to settle into the groove, but when I did I got a distinct dance sensibility (New Order-y kinda?, though I'm not well-versed in their discography either) and obvious similarities to Protomartyr. Didn't quite gel, and my preference for Protomartyr probably says more about me than The Fall. That said, this is apparently one of their more mainstream projects, so I should circle back around and listen to something weirder in the future.

There is zero chance that I'll remember anything about this album once I've listened to everything on this list. It's a guy mumbling over some generic early 90s post-punk. A waste of time. Best track: Glam-Racket

not my style of singer at all, sounded a lot like a guy who just doesn't care. A classic British bastard which could be fun for some, but I'm looking for something much more unique.

Good Lord, that was awful.

Hard to be objective about this album -- first record by The Fall that I encountered and I f***ing love it.

One of my favorite bands. They have such an extensive catalog i had not previously listened to this one and i loved it!

the only Fall album I owned when it came out. contains my favorite Fall song, Paranoia Man, and so many other great tunes. hard to say what's their best but this is up there

One of my favourite Fall albums (I think I might say this everytime I listen to a Fall album?). Nicely evokes happy memories with it's Madchester vibe, even if it does sound a little dated. I'm always surprised and impressed at how MES always stepped close to but rarely strayed into ruining great performances from his band members.

oh nice! I love The Fall I was really in the mood for an album like this, I’m glad I got this today and of course the album is great, a bit weird but that’s what I love about it - 10/10

omg love so much, this is my new favorite album

This '93 release is much more melodic & accessible than their '79 release, without actually being very accessible. I was suprised to see Nile Rogers name on the song credits. Lots of catchy tracks that grow on you by the 2nd or 3rd listen. I gave their debut a 3, which was actually a 2.5. I'll give this a 3 as well, but it's more like a 3.5.

2.1 - An old man ranting in his sleep over royalty-free industrial rock music.

Someone let this band record FIFTEEN times. I first to believe it. This is monotonous, out of time crap.

Another album where decent musicianship is ruined by an annoying singer. sad

The Fall. NIE gehört. Ansage nach Lesen von Band- und Album-Info auf Wikipedia: bin ergebnisoffen, glaube aber, dass ich es scheiße finden werde. Uuuund: ich finde es zum kotzen. Das kann doch mit DEM Gesang keiner ernsthaft produzieren. An welcher Stelle hat da die Selbstkritik ausgesetzt? (Im Übrigen: wie unmusikalisch ist das 'panel‘ von Musikkritikern, das diese Anthologie erstellt hat, dass es DIESES Album für würdig befindet, darin aufgenommen zu werden?) Stellenweise ist sind die Stücke ja ganz nett arrangiert, das täuscht aber zu keinem Zeitpunkt über die uninspirierten Kompositionen hinweg. Ich MUSSTE nach dem 5. Song ausmachen, nie wieder The Fall. Am liebsten kein Stern.

Absolutely bloody brilliant, like everything by The Fall. The only downside was that I knew I was going to listen to the full 2 hours including extras. This is described as one of the most accessible albums from The Fall, but don't worry, the ‘accessible’ bit just refers to a dance music tilt, other than that it's business as usual. Favourite lyric from the extras: ‘If I ever end up like Richard Madeley cut my hands off with an axe please’ (A Past Gone Mad, Peel Session 16) Favourite song: Lost in Music

New to me. Can‘t believe how good it is!

Great peak 90s fall with electronic touches and studio trickery. The band slaps.

Love the Fall! Haven’t heard this one as much as Hex Enduction Hour or Wonderful and Frightening World but it is prime Fall music

I really disliked “Live at the Witch Trials” and disliked “The Nation’s Saving Grace.” I’m wondering why I need another album from The Fall. With great reservations and more than a little resentment this journey begins… “Ladybird”… this is not terrible… maybe even exceeding tolerable. Way better than expected. “Lost In Music”… what?! A remake of a Sister Sledge song?! By Nile Rogers?! Ummmm… this is unexpected… they’ve breached the walls! WTF?! I love this! “Glam-Racket”… nice beat! Great guitar! Fuck… am I having fun?! “I’m Going To Spain”… Love the delivery, love the tune, love the lyrics, love it! The remaining songs have interesting arrangements, a sort of punk-y vibe and constant undertones of madness. Even the odd talking-over-the-music thing is working for me over music this good. A few songs tested my patience a little… but they are surrounded with so much good stuff that any discomfort was quickly forgotten. Where The Fall’s other albums I heard were off-the-rails bad, this one is an odd and wildly fun ride that teeters precariously along without ever losing me as a listener. I willingly continued into the two bonus tracks and loved them both. Well hell… Never in a million years would I have thought The Fall would get a 5 out of me but The Infotainment Scan kicked me square in the musical nuts and here we are.

Kickass! Opened up a whole new vein of punk rock to me!

I think we've listened to two other Fall albums on 1001 albums. My other half and her cool mates are into the Fall. As a result, I've heard a few of her favourite songs (one of which "Glam Racket" is on this album) and I saw them live at least twice before Mark E. Smith died. I think this is the first time I've really enjoyed them. I can really see where both Pavement and LCD Soundsystem, "took inspiration" from The Fall on this one. I'm going to do a slightly risky thing given I've only heard it once and give it five stars. This is partly due to marking inflation, but mainly because I liked every song and I think I'll come back to this album again!

Yes! What a cracker. Loved it

Perfect!

Again, awesome album!

Pleasantly surprised to see this on the list. I love a bit of The Fall. Easy 5

Discazo. Favs: "Lost in Music", "Past Gone Mad", "Why Are People Grudgeful?". 10/10

Pongan menos pinche Elton John y más The Fall. Por el amor de dios.

Very underrated album and band.

THIS is the album by The Fall that everyone should know (rather than Saving Grace). It has some of the best lyrics, and tunes, of any of their later albums. And possibly their best cover version in Lost In Music. Glam-Racket, Paranoia Man, A Past Gone Mad are all up there in the canon of great Fall songs. And this would be worth 5 stars for Service alone, one of sadly few wistful and poignant MES lyrics, made even more so by the janky House piano that tries to drive it along (and almost makes it). The nineties production is one of few reservations here. At the risk of being one of the 'lookback bores', these songs really would have benefited from a bigger sound, similar to Hex or Saving Grace. Or even the lo-fi clanking of Grotesque. This seems to fall (ahem) between pretty much every (bar) stool, soundwise. Oh, and Light/Fireworks could have been left off the end and everyone would have been much happier, I suspect. For better versions of many of these songs, The Twenty Seven Points live album shows what they could have sounded like. There's not really such a thing as a bad Fall album in my book, and this is one of the best. I just wish they'd beefed the sound up a bit.

This album had a live version of a song that I'd never heard before from the previous album I listened to and it's freaking me out more than it should

Five stars because fu the Fall are awesome. It's different and you just don't get it. This is their most accessible album, and it's not all that accessible. I wonder if someone challenged Mark E. Smith (who is a god by the way) to come up with a pop album? Might change me name to Shadrach Glamrick.

Will come back to you

Ne er heard of them before, but great

This is hilarious, and knowingly, intelligently so. Post-irony before it was even a thing.

The only bad thing about this album is the suprisingly well played music which often overshadowed the spokenword lyrics of the titan that was Mark E Smith.

You can always count on Mark E Smith to deliver the goods. Glam Racket is a scathing highlight, prediction the Britpop era sess pool on the rise. The biggest triumph is the Fall delivering a fresh take on their own sound while Indy darlings of the era were plundering their back catalogue

As a member of the league of bald headed men I can’t give this any lower than a 5.

nice album, never heard of them, but i would definitely check out more of them

Lost In Music, I'm Going to Spain, Paranoia Man in a Cheap Shit Room, and The League of Bald-Headed Men all bangers

An Indie dinosaur.

This is just incandescently brilliant music. The drunkard beat poetry lyrics are pretty good too. Anyone hating on this album but at the same time loves Dylan for his singing need to STFU. Favorites? Yes, all of them.

good weird lost in music glam-racket it's a curse service past gone mad

great album, my fist listen to The Fall and liked it a lot!

The Fall és una de les bandes més originals i recuperables que existeixen. Tants i tants grups haurien de prendre nota de què experimentar només s'hauria de fer quan s'és un geni de veritat i tens el toc de màgia de la creativitat dins teu, com és el cas de l'ínclit Mark E. Smith. Aquí grans temes com 'Lost in Music' o 'It's a Curse' s'envolten d'altres cançons no menys aprofitables. Cap d'elles òbvies, totes producte d'una ment brillant

Muy buen álbum!

the guy sounds really bored singing or whatever poetry hes talking about and thats a mood

Better than I expected, Mark E Smith was the boss of post-punk, I need to listen to more Fall for sure.

My second fall album, really enjoyed this probably more accessible than there other albums.

I loved and hated this album at the same time

Light / Fireworks is good, the rest sounds like normal The Fall...

New to me and loved it.

#6 #9 #11

Mark's voice is sometimes a hard listen, but alot of these tracks were really good

7,5/10

One of my favorite works from The Fall. Really creative and appealing, with a sound that I love.

I had not listened any The Fall, but this was right up my alley. I enjoyed it and already listened to another album of theres. I love this type of hard, punky, weird shit.

This one surprised me. There were some moments of songs that were incredible and had me stop whatever I was doing to listen. The thing is, they'd always come back to earth on the next track. Pretty unique sound, though, with their steady house/dance rhythms, James bond-esque guitars, and their rambly talking heads-ish singer

This is just so fucking cool, man. Punky, dark dance music.

Great album that pulls an insane mix of 70s rock, 80s synths, and early 90s grunge into a cohesive firestorm of an LP that works by sheer will alone. Vocals didn’t kill it for me - surprised to see so much whining about them here when they feel like a slightly drunker Ian Curtis at worst. Still, the instrumentation is by far what carries each track, with every song focusing an amalgamation of fuzzed-out guitar and dripping synths into an unholy combo that just works somehow. Even though the more synth-heavy tracks do tend to feel a bit dated, that’s not enough to slow down the momentum - overall, a much more enjoyable LP than I was expecting, especially given the reviews here

An absolute blast of a record. Mark E. Smith is as good as post-punk singers come and with titles like “Paranoia Man In a Cheap Shit Room”, you know you’re in for a good time.

bought this in 1995 at a pawn shop because they were on Matador and Pavement were said to have ripped them off. I didn't quite find it to be that exactly. But it's great. That voice is insane. What a weird dude. It grew on me. I was instantly in love with "I'm Going To Spain". Cute little song. This is fucking rad.

Surprising.

De lät som om äjjän ville sälja mig någo

The Infotainment Scan by The Fall is a captivating and intriguing album that showcases the band's unique brand of post-punk and alternative rock. Released in 1993, it offers a diverse array of tracks that range from the infectious "Why Are People Grudgeful?" to the hypnotic "Paranoia Man in Cheap Sh*t Room." Mark E. Smith's distinctive vocals and witty lyrics shine throughout, creating a distinct and immersive listening experience. The album's production is raw yet compelling, adding to its gritty charm. While not as consistent as some of their earlier releases, The Infotainment Scan still stands as a testament to The Fall's undeniable talent and their ability to push musical boundaries. A recommended listen for fans of post-punk and alternative rock.

Fun party music. Not totally my jam.

I rediscovered The Fall with this album. Good mix of classic Fall and some new experiments. Mark E Smith is the black jelly bean of post-punk front men, and I love black jelly beans. Stand outs: Lost in Music I’m Going to Spain Light/Fireworks

This sounds like a stand up comedian making fun of Bob Dylan or Morrissey. Kinda catchy otherwise. It seems like it wants to be a cynical album but the lyrics suggest that it's just not able to be. It seems to have a nostalgic edge that keeps it from detaching from emotion completely. It's the most fun post-punk album I've heard so far! 4

This is some pretty good post punk. Love the beat throughout, not surprised to see "alternative dance" listed as one of the genres. Is Mark E. Smith talking/singing - yes! But seems to go good with the music to me. I was entertained. 3.6

pretty good, had not heard of them but enjoyed it.

Super album

Awesome post-punk with a driving energy. The vocals are quite a choice. Can't say I'd make the same choice but it does add up to a cool style: Spoken word vocals + relentless riffs and rhythm. I bet LCD Soundsystem counts this album as an influence. Wow, "Past Gone Made" is an awesome track.

Band was never on my radar before these lists. Great unique sound.

The Fall are always good, even if they're bad. This is a particularly good one!

I'm still struggling with the Fall a bit, its still a barrier for me BUT this I did enjoy. Was a lot more fun and jangly that previous more grungy punk ones. Apparently their only top 10 album

A good but not great Fall album. It was given perhaps undue attention by the excellent & entertaining cover of 'Lost In Music'.

really not the best fall album, but how do you dip in to the catalogue and pick good ones without listening to them all?

Great post punk album. It even went a little techno at one point. Will be listening to this again.

I like kicking the golden brown leaves down the path

The music was great and there was something charmingly off kilter about the vocals

Pretty interesting and cool and Lost In Music always slaps

Quality through and through, this stands up well in their vast and impressive catalog. The synth and tech, while providing a touch more than the ideal (or necessary) amount of sheen and gloss, freshen up an inimitable sound, which retains its dark and edgy bite. One's been more of a casual fan/approver/passive admirer type and finds this an interesting and wholly distinguished updating of a sound; only "Past Gone Mad" goes too far. "I'm Going to Spain" is just splendid, and "It's a Curse" (or is it "It's a Curse-UNH"?) the perfect follow up, with the barby sharpness one expects from this lot. "Why Are People Grudgeful" walks like a lark and talks like a lark, but what a delightful lark it is. One wonders how this might rate straight up against inferior Britpoppers like Blur, who would seem to owe more than a little to MES. Given the rich canon, staying power and consistent vision, in combination with a willingness to invent authentically, one can make the case for the Fall being the best ever underrated band (not the just most underrated).

I'm starting to see that I like specific subgenres of punk. Grunge-punk & pop-punk seem to be the only ones I can listen to multiple times with no issue (The Clash, My Chemical Romance, Nirvana). Post-punk can be a bit of a headache to listen to (for me), that being said, I didn't mind this album. The further I got through the album, the more I enjoyed it! Style wise I thought this would be a straight punk record - but it's a mixture of different rock sounds, sometimes it sounds electronic, and other times alternative. At times, it sounded like the stylistic sound Muse is known for in parts (electronic rock maybe...?) Standout songs: It's a Curse, Glam Racket, Service, Past Gone Mad, Lights/Fireworks