The Fall, Your Future, Our Clutter

By J Howell

The late John Peel once famously said of The Fall that the reason he loved them was because “they are always different; they are always the same.” That pretty much sums up Your Future, Our Clutter as well as any one sentence could.

Though only Mark E. Smith has been constant throughout the band’s thirty-four year career, that same thread of similar traits is present on this, the band’s twenty-eighth album. Part of that may be that Your Future, Our Clutter was made by the same Fall that made the last album, Imperial Wax Solvent, but listening to a cross-section of Fall music made over the band’s career one can’t help but notice that there are similarities: hypnotic repetition in the music, distinctly British social commentary, Mark E. Smith’s iconoclastic vocals, and an amazing knack for being simultaneously incredibly abrasive and hooky.

The differences with this album are relatively subtle: the particular tools, and the non-MES band members’ wielding of them. This seems to be what really sets one incarnation of The Fall apart from another, even if it’s barely perceptible. While there’s no radical departure on Your Future, Our Clutter, maybe that’s for the best. Let’s be honest—if The Fall did attempt some radical departure, they wouldn’t be the band (or revolving cast, at least) that we know and love.

Fortunately for fans and newcomers alike, Your Future, Our Clutter is a strong record, even by Fall standards.

The first track “O.F.Y.C. Showcase” doesn’t really go much of anywhere lyrically but functions brilliantly as a statement of purpose to set the tone; it’s full of danceable energy, crazy noise, and ferocious guitar and bass under Smith’s trademark vocals. “Bury Pts. 1+3” follows, though it really seems more like it should be “Bury Pts. 1 through 3;” it starts as though it were a boombox cassette recording of itself and becomes clearer in three fairly distinct stages. Much as the record is as a whole, lyrically the song is full of typical Smith brilliant nonsense, some of which may be lost on those of us who aren’t British, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Which is not to say that Smith’s lyrics are nonsense, it’s just that, given his thick accent, the level of distorted musical distraction surrounding it, and general cultural differences between the UK and America (or anywhere else, I suppose), much of the symbolism and references may be lost on unfamiliar listeners.

As is often the case with The Fall, whether or not you “get” what Mark E. Smith is singing about doesn’t matter much as the songs are thoroughly enjoyable even if you don’t. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know why he’s mentioning squirrels or “tales for the Castleford crypt,” or even if you can’t quite distinguish what the hell he’s actually saying on the first listen or two. There’s enough sparkle and grind and sheer exuberance to more than get by.

There are pleasant surprises both sonically (such as the panned call-and-response baritone guitar twang on “Y.F.O.C./ Slippy Floor”) and materially (a cover of Wanda Jackson’s 1961 classic “Funnel of Love”). Even if you’re not quite sure what “I don’t make rice with screwdrivers/ I’ll fry chicken with a trowel” has to do with anything, by the second listen you’re singing along anyway.

Such is the beauty of The Fall, and it seems as though that beauty isn’t the slightest bit diminished on Your Future, Our Clutter. This record should please longtime fans, and makes as good a point of entry into the world of Mark E. Smith as any of The Fall’s records, and is easily one of the best records of 2010 so far.

Your Future, Our Clutter is out now via Domino Recording Co. Ltd. For more information, check out The Fall online.

May 4: Rock City, Nottingham, UK
May 7: Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK
May 8: Palace, Aldershot, UK
May 9: Concorde 2, Brighton, UK
May 16: ATP, Minehead, UK
May 21: Balne Lane Working Mens Club, Wakefield, UK