Search - Fall :: Cerebral Caustic

DON'T CALL ME DARLING...

EriKa | Iceland | 10/08/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"As a foolish teenager I once thought I was in love with one my pen pals in England. He had recorded me a cassette with some of the music that would define the next decade of my life, and one of the most fabulous songs was "Life Just Bounces" by the Fall. After a considerable amount of overplay and simple abuse of the cassette that included "Life Just Bounces", the tape finally gave up the ghost, and while the English guy was long gone, the song was still in my head... so I went on what seemed a futile search for the song on CD. It took me years to find it, and of course thanks to the re-release of much of The Fall's earlier material, I was able to find the song first on a 2 CD set called "The 27 points" but it was a rather bad live version, and then I found Cerebral Caustic, and here is my beloved "Life Just Bounces" in all the original glory I remembered. I have to say that this album is very much like other Fall albums. Mark E. Smith delivers vocals in a very... well, unique, Mark E. Smith kind of way. In order to understand quite what I mean by this, you will just have to listen to a sample. It takes some getting used to. There are usually female backing vocals which take the edge off his alarming style. The music is often aggressive sounding and resounds with a certain sameness that is very signature Fall. It can make listening to their records somewhat tedious and often you will find you have to be in the right kind of mood for The Fall. It can be a highly idiosyncratic and maybe even annoying experience if you are not in the mood for it. What impresses me most is their prolific longevity. And how they have remained so obscure over time? "Life Just Bounces" is a glorious song. I love it, and for me, the price of the CD was worth simply having that song."

The reissue series keeps on packing!

Jack Smith | W-S, NC uSSa | 04/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First off I must say that this is easily my favorite Fall album from the 90's. Not a very popular opinion, but it's my own. 4 1/2 stars easy.

So, how do you make it better?

Easy, give it the Castle/Sancuary reissue treatment. A Peel Session. A whole album's worth of rough mixes (quite nice) the singles and remixes too.

5 stars."

This is awesome

A. Davis | Berkshires | 01/02/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"How dare the Fall play a bunch of three-minute songs in a verse/chorus/verse/chorus structure? Because they're the Fall and they do what they damn well please. There is no one Fall sound. But everything they do sounds like them and no one else. This album is such a joy, I don't understand why critics have maligned it over the years. It's not a "definitive" album to hand to new Fall listeners, I guess, but really, who cares? The experiment goes on, to this day even, no looking back. Music this good doesn't need a context."