The Fall "This Nation's Saving Grace" [1985]

Ever notice that there's only ever one effort by The Fall listed among the supposed "great accomplishments" of 80s music? The Fall have like 95 albums and they're all intolerably bad. So what's with "This Nation's Saving Grace" -- did Mark E. Smith suddenly learn how to carry a tune? Hell fucking no; this may be the only vocalist in history who is literally tone-deaf. Did their distorted rhythm section finally take some goddamn lessons and not sound like poseur junkie losers who can't keep time? Nuh-uh. Does this band lay off the meth and glue-sniffing long enough to not drive every frickin' riff they hatch right over the frickin' cliff? They most certainly do not. The fact is, "This Nation's Saving Grace" sounds exactly like every one of The Fall's other 94 albums, give or take a few changed band-members taking the same terrible direction from Smith. Maybe it's that the one potentially commercial moment for this band in its insanely long existence nowhere relevant came in the form of something called "Cruisers Creek." But you've never heard this song on the radio, admit it. So I propose what those feckless, lazy asshole critics from Rolling Stone and elsewhere do is admit they really never listened to "This Nation's Saving Grace" and only included it because they're all lemmings cheating off each others' papers, and once upon a time Spin hired an actual fan of this band full of cretins. They won't suffer a blow to their integrity; I predict no one will care at all.