This Nation's Saving Grace

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This Nation's Saving Grace
File:This Nation's Saving Grace.jpg
Studio album by The Fall
Released 23 September 1985
Recorded 1985
Genre Post-punk
Length 47:17
Label Beggars Banquet
Producer John Leckie
The Fall chronology
The Wonderful and Frightening World Of...
(1984)The Wonderful and Frightening World Of...1984		 This Nation's Saving Grace
(1985)		 Bend Sinister
(1986)Bend Sinister1986

This Nation's Saving Grace is the eighth studio album by English post-punk band The Fall. It was released in 1985 by record label Beggars Banquet.

The album peaked at number 54 in the UK Albums Chart and was well received by critics. According to The Guardian, the album "finds [The Fall] operating just on the edge of the mainstream and at the peak of their accessibility and yet strangeness".[1]

Background and production

Paul Hanley left The Fall in November 1984, leaving Karl Burns as the sole drummer and ending their classic dual drummer line up. His brother, long term Fall bassist Steve Hanley, took four months' paternity leave in late 1984 and so played very little part in the writing of the album. He was replaced by Simon Rogers, a classically trained musician whom the group leader Mark E. Smith knew from working with dancer Michael Clarke. After Hanley's return, Rogers switched to guitar and keyboards. The Fall marked Hanley's reappearance with the inscription "S Hanley! He's Back" on the run-out groove on side one.

Content

Yarbles (from the song titled "To NK Roachment: Yarbles") appears in the novel A Clockwork Orange as Nadsat for testicles or bollocks. The song's lyrics "Everyday you have to die some/Everyday you have to cry some" alludes to a line that is almost exactly the same in the Lou Reed song "Home of the Brave", from his 1983 album Legendary Hearts.

"I Am Damo Suzuki" is a tribute to the seminal 1970s Krautrock group Can and their occasional vocalist Damo Suzuki. The riff descending in semitones is based on the end section of "Bel Air" from the Can album Future Days (a similar progression also features in "Don't Turn the Light On, Leave Me Alone" from the Soundtracks album), while the drum pattern is based on "Oh Yeah" from Tago Mago.

"What You Need" is titled after an episode of The Twilight Zone. The lyric "slippery shoes for your horrible feet" also originates from the plot of this episode.

Release

This Nation's Saving Grace was released on 23 September 1985 by record label Beggars Banquet. It reached number 54 in the UK Albums Chart.[2]

After tours of the North of England and the US, The Fall recorded the double A-sided single "Couldn't Get Ahead"/"Rollin' Dany" and subsequent single "Cruiser's Creek" with Simon Rogers standing in on bass guitar.[3]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4.5/5 stars[4]
Drowned in Sound 10/10[5]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music 5/5 stars[6]
The Guardian 5/5 stars[1]
Pitchfork Media 10/10[7]
Record Collector 4/5 stars[8]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide 4/5 stars[9]
Uncut 4/5 stars[10]
The Village Voice B+[11]

This Nation's Saving Grace has received critical acclaim.

Bruce Tiffee of Pitchfork Media cited This Nation's Saving Grace as "one of the strongest-ever Fall releases" and "perhaps the best record to emerge from the Beggars Banquet Fall era".[7] Dave Simpson of The Guardian wrote that the album showcased The Fall "thrillingly subverting the notion of what pop music is",[1] while Uncut wrote that it contained the band's strongest configuration, "in all their menacing, utilitarian finery."[10]

Legacy

Pitchfork listed This Nation's Saving Grace as 13th best album of the 1980s. It ranked at 46 in Spin's list of the 100 greatest albums from 1985 to 2005.[12] Slant listed the album at number 93 in its list of the best albums of the 1980s.[13] The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[14]

The CD edition was covered in its entirety by members of the forum on the band's then-official website, with the approval of Mark E. Smith.[citation needed] The complete album was later covered in concert by Triple Gang, featuring members of Faith No More and Fudge Tunnel.[15]

Track listing

Side A
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Mansion"   Mark E. Smith 1:21
2. "Bombast"   Steve Hanley, M. Smith 3:08
3. "Barmy"   M. Smith 5:21
4. "What You Need"   Craig Scanlon, M. Smith 4:50
5. "Spoilt Victorian Child"   Simon Rogers, M. Smith 4:13
6. "L.A."   Brix Smith, M. Smith 4:10
Side B
No. Title Writer(s) Length
7. "Gut of the Quantifier"   Karl Burns, M. Smith 5:16
8. "My New House"   M. Smith 5:16
9. "Paint Work"   Rogers, Scanlon, M. Smith 6:38
10. "I Am Damo Suzuki"   Burns, B. Smith, M. Smith 5:41
11. "To Nk Roachment: Yarbles"   B. Smith, M. Smith 1:23

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Daryl Easlea – interview with Paul Hanley, "The Fall Box Set 1976 – 2007" accompanying booklet (Castle Music/Sanctuary 2007)
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/feature/best-albums-of-the-1980s/308
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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