Pitchfork

Easily one of the high points of the Fall's 20-years-and-running career was their release of 1984's The Wonderful and Frightening World. Even as the album opened, you knew there was something really, really good waiting inside. During the intro to the album's first song, "Lay of the Land", where Mark E Smith moans "Armageddon..." over a number of silly voices chanting, "Lay! Lay! Lay!" images are evoked not of Satanic rituals, but goofball cartoon antics. It's when the intro ends and the song stomps in that you realize you were just being prepared for a mind-blowing experience.

Filled from start to finish with songs so angular and other-worldly, you could only imagine (or maybe you couldn't) what's going on inside Smith's head. From the bouncy and insane "Oh! Brother" whose Sex Pistols-meets-Plastic Bertrand new-waviness might even save the queen, to the simply-Brix sounds of "C.R.E.E.P."-- not to mention the refreshing pop/rock of "No Bulbs", The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall wastes no time making you aware of its legendary status.