Pitchfork

The Fall are brilliant. No, really, you've heard all of this before, but that's because it's true. Mark E. Smith's revolving door doesn't always push out masterpieces but the music is rarely less than fascinating, and the band's rigorously applied aesthetic blueprint nullifies the fatigue of their prolific tendencies. Their imperfection and profligate recording habits are part of what makes them one of my favorite bands, but with Interim the shit has finally hit the fan. I know MES can be somewhat cavalier regarding his fans and their expectations, but no one that I know of needs a disc like this.

Interim-- aptly named as its sole purpose seems to be as space filler between proper LPs-- is a haphazard jumble of recent rehearsals and live recordings, with mastering levels randomly ranging from inaudible to deafening, fidelity that is consistently questionable but often awful, and a bizarre tracklisting that throws in a few new songs that are illicitly available on superior Peel Session bootlegs (and likely soon on a new Fall album), mock-ups of the tracks from The Real New Fall LP, and a few live recordings of old classics from the band's current lineup. In other words, no one really seems to have given much thought to this disc's actual value or purpose to fans, and it further muddies The Fall's already confusing and (to a newcomer) somewhat monolithic discography.

And dammit, what makes this even more frustrating is that most of the material is quite good-- maybe not prime Fall, but strong. Really, I just got versions of "Mod Mock Goth", "Theme From Sparta FC", and "Boxoctosis" earlier this year, and those were better than these, and I like the rearrangement on the live take on This Nation's Saving Grace's fantastic "Spoilt Victorian Child", but the sound is terrible, with volume fluctuations and a disengaged vocal from MES sinks it further. Couldn't I just have a whole show with the current lineup? The new songs are often impressive, but why not just treat me to the whole Peel Session? Instead, "Blindness", (aka "Blind Man"-- most of the songs here have slightly altered or adjusted titles) is just a nasty bassline and you're left trying to glean the rest of it through the fuzzy mud. "All Clasp Hands" sounds recorded by an audience member, and the crowd noise is irritating, though not quite as irritating as the odd and nearly constant clapping that sabotages "What About Us?" Why does the promising "I'm Ronney the Oney" cut off suddenly after a minute and a half?

And what the hell is that beeping sound in the middle of "Boxoctosis Alarum" (again with the needlessly altered titles)? It comes in like someone's pager going off in the midst of a movie, and it's louder than anything else on the recording. Seriously, this is either a post-modernist experimental joke to see how many critics will call it genius or it's just plain sloppy and careless. I say all of this with considerable conflict, because I love The Fall and normally find their erratic inscrutability a part of their allure. The songs themselves are guilty of nothing, good as they are, but the presentation is all wrong. Fall cultists, beware, because the completist in you who forces you to buy this is laying an ambush. Non-cultists, don't even contemplate laying out a red cent for this. Get The Real New Fall LP. Get on the peer-to-peers and find the Peel Sessions, wait for a real live album and wait for the next LP, because this is not worth your time.