The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall
Artist: The Fall
Community Score: 9.00

The Fall made the leap to a semi-major label -- Beggars Banquet -- with The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall, hooking up with noted producer John Leckie to create another smart, varied album. Contemporaneous with the slightly friendlier "Oh! Brother" and "C.R.E.E.P." singles without actually including them, Wonderful and Frightening... Read More

The Singles
Artist: Japan
Community Score: 8.00
Mundo Civilizado
Artist: Arto Lindsay

With Mundo Civilizado, downtown denizen Arto Lindsay is probably the first person to successfully integrate the sounds of techno and drum'n'bass into an already established pop music style. Others, notably David Bowie, have tried to do something similar, but although Bowie's attempt in particular was more successful than most critics give him... Read More

20 Mothers
Artist: Julian Cope

Returning to a full CD's worth of material, Cope on 20 Mothers creates 20 songs, covering a wide variety of topics as opposed to the general concept records from his then-recent past. Everything from reestablishing contact with his estranged brother Joss ("Wheelbarrow Man") to vegetarianism, bandmates, his mother-in-law, and even Kurt Cobain get... Read More

This Nation's Saving Grace
Artist: The Fall
Community Score: 9.67

"Feel the wrath of my Bombast!" exhorts Smith on this follow-up to their groundbreaking Wonderful and Frightening World of... the Fall, and this collection is ample proof of the pure confidence the group had at this time. Stompers like "Barmy," "What You Need," and the mighty "Gut of the Quantifier" are all led by Brix Smith's twanging lead... Read More

Gentlemen Take Polaroids
Artist: Japan
Community Score: 7.00

The last album with Rob Dean, Gentlemen Take Polaroids was also unquestionably the album in which Japan truly found its own unique voice and aesthetic approach. The glam influences still hung heavy, particularly from Roxy Music, but now the band found itself starting to affect others in turn. Even the back cover photo says as much -- looking... Read More

Bend Sinister
Artist: The Fall
Community Score: 6.00

Again working with John Leckie on production, the Fall's third Beggars album, Bend Sinister, was a distinctly down affair -- not that the Fall were ever a shiny happy band, of course, but both music and lyrics seemed like a darker corner to dwell in. Happily there was no worry that the Fall would ever go goth; one suspects Mark E. Smith would... Read More

Prize
Artist: Arto Lindsay

Arto Lindsay has come a long way since his early days as one of the prime architects of downtown New York's "No Wave" sound, a period when he played untuned guitar in the noise trio DNA and served as the first vocalist for the Golden Palominos. Since then he's been a fairly ubiquitous guest artist and has pursued his own interest in the music of... Read More