Verdict: More from the angriest man in Britain.
Mark E. Smith of Britain's marathon-running post-punk agit-prop outfit The Fall, is nothing if not consistent.
He's still annoyed at the world and putting his anger and observations into a brittle, confrontation garage-noise, electro-distorted musical context.
His vocals on Bury Parts 1 and 3 here come from the bottom of some sulphur pit in a factory, then haul themselves into the nightclub for some abrasive guitar chords before he comes on declaiming in typical speak-sing style about how much suffering you will go through, and some other stuff besides.
On this, the 28th album under The Fall's name, Smith is typically elliptical, political, personal and sometimes it's hard to fathom what he's on about.
But give him this, he does it with passion and this album bristles with sonic and lyrical menace - yet never sounds off-putting because clanking electro-disco grind and mechanical rhythms haul you in.
So, galloping cowboy rock, the extraordinary, constantly morphing mini-epic YFOC/Slippery Floor with its post-Bukowski/Burroughs contemptuous sneer, the cover of 50s rocker Wanda Jackson's Funnel of Love, the gorgeous, if distorted, ballad Weather Report 2.
Compelling, oddly appealing, poetic - but an acquired taste still.
And always.
-Graham Reid elsewhere.co.nz
