#shift-work

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The Fall

Shift-Work (1991)

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Shift-Work, The Fall (1991)

MES followed-up his bitterest album, Extricate, with one of his jolliest. Shift-Work ramped up the Baggy beats and synth melodies; reinvention completed by a soppy opine to the city of Edinburgh. Heart-warming stuff, really – though probably a bit disappointing if you’re a die-hard lover of misers.

Pick: ‘Edinburgh Man’

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Uber launches a shift-work finder app, Uber Works, starting in Chicago

Uber launches a shift-work finder app, Uber Works, starting in Chicago

What do you do when your current business model is so staggeringly loss-making you’re having to warn investors it may never turn a profit, at the same time as it’s under increasing legal and regulatory attack?

One answer might be to pivot. Uberisn’t doing that, exactly. Not yet anyway. But it has just officially announced the launch of a new app for matching shift workers with shifts, called…

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Curiosities of The Fall - No 9 of 15(ish) - Rose

Tucked away at the end of "Shift-Work", this is one of those Fall songs that never seems to make anyone's Top 20 but I have long been fascinated by it. Almost uniquely, the pull is as much from what Mark E. Smith *doesn't* say as what he does.

It was recorded by the six piece line-up found on "Extricate" - Smith, Bramah, Scanlon, Hanley, Schofield, Wolstencroft - rather than the quartet who made the rest of the album. Given that it was produced by Craig Leon, it could have originated during sessions for "Extricate" or "The Dredger EP". Smith's vocal is very similar in sound, tone and delivery to the 1990 version of  "Life Just Bounces" found on the latter - the same slightly muffled quality, the closeness, the same mic pops and fluffs. And, more to the point, the same downbeat quality - Smith sounds almost defeated here, all long pauses and dark laughter, a very rare mode indeed.

The opening line is disputed thanks to Smith's diction - it sounds to me like "The scarecrow's down", possibly signifying that we are heading from autumn into winter. He then says "I hope you are alright, I am alright". This is followed by a long gap in which nothing happens; the group simply repeat the figures that run through the whole song (indeed, the group could mostly be looped here, the only real consession to arrangement being elements falling in and out at different points). It's a truly awkward silence; that pause that can occur when someone says they're "alright" when it is quite obvious they are no such thing. "You alright?" is no longer an actual enquiry, it's just a salutation and the pause left here makes it incredibly obvious that Smith is far from alright. The next line is extraordinary - "there is a letter marked urgent, I have not yet read it". I've commented on this line before and the light, exhausted chuckle with which Smith delivers it certainly adds to its poignancy. It could be that he knows exactly what the letter says and can't face it but, to my ears (my heart?), this is an inspired depiction of the indolence of real sadness, the sadness that can't be bothered today and pulls the covers back round you, the sadness that changes your mind just as you're putting on your shoes to leave the house, the sadness that doesn't feel like eating the meal you've just cooked. It could be the single most heartbreaking moment of their career.

Given that the song was issued in the first half of 1991, the general view was - and remains - that the letter was probably divorce papers and the song was about Brix. I don't think it's that simple. The line "get that wah-wah going, remember you started it" has been put forward as pertaining to Brix but the percussive, whipping wah-wah guitar here is surely played by Bramah, following from his similar turn on "Telephone Thing" (the main guitar riff is certainly Scanlon). Bramah was The Fall's founding guitarist - he "started" it. If the song *is* addressed to Brix overall, then the line "and your replacement, he is a good man" could also refer to Bramah, being Smith's replacement for her in the group. If these lines do concern Bramah then it says a massive amount about Smith that the song was only released after Bramah had been sacked and about how his entire life was (and is) wrapped up within The Fall.

Musically, the core of "Rose" is how Scanlon and Hanley fit together - Hanley's necessary bass riff working off Scanlon's tender chords to make this gentle piece something strong, robust. Hanley's bass is the friendly hand on the shoulder of Smith's vocal, putting a fresh pint down in front of him with a sad smile.

"Rose" is considered minor and was probably too similar in tone to "Bill Is Dead" to catch the ear of the critics, striking as it does a much less universal note than the latter. Also, Schofield's "flute" - actually a keyboard setting - is just on the wrong side of cheese. "Rose" may even have been an outtake or reject, dusted off and put on "Shift-Work" due to time or budget constraints. Yet it carries a real weight, one that - for once - Smith can't simply elide, joke about or play around with. The directness of his lyric is startling throughout - one line consists of just the word "freckles" - a passing memory externalised and then gone again.

The song was never played live. I reckon its moment had passed as soon as Smith put his mic down.

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The Fall - A Lot of wind (Live on MTV)

Some more musics from The Fall. Early 90's Fall rules. Notice the "Live on MTV" bit, lol. We're all degenerating. 

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The Fall’s Albums In No Order At All; No. 14 of 29(ish) - Shift-Work

Funny one this...they were officially a four piece for the first time in their career and, consequently, "Shift-Work" is The Fall stripped to the basics - MES, Scanlon, Hanley, Wolstencroft; one of everything you absolutely need, no doubles, no keyboard player (well fiddler Kenny Brady helped out a bit), no fuss. An appealing prospect but, actually, it doesn't quite deliver.

Part of the problem is that the production is kinda flat. In "Renegade", MES claims the album was recorded in UB40's studio because he wanted engineers who knew what they were doing. The result is a very clean recording, probably the cleanest in the catalogue. Whilst this allows some highly pleasing elements to come right through (i.e. Scanlon's wonky slide guitar on "Pittsville Direkt"), it also leaves this bare-bones Fall a bit too exposed. One of the group's strengths has always been those details you don't quite pick up on first listen and this line-up had no room for such frills. So the album has to stand on the songs alone and some of them aren't quite up to it. "The Book Of Lies" is actually properly annoying, "You Haven't Found It Yet" is an open goal of a title and "A Lot Of Wind" isn't as funny as it thinks it is - daytime television is too easy a target. However, there is a rare tenderness on this album, embodied in the mournful, distant Krautrock of the title track, the doleful "Sinister Waltz" and the reflective and much (possibly over) eulogised "Edinburgh Man". There is also "Rose" which contains one of Smith's finest couplets:

"There is a letter marked "urgent"

I have not yet read it"

This could be because Smith knows what it contains, an honest expression of self-denial, a delaying of the inevitable but, to me, it's an exceptionally graceful statement of the indolence that comes with sadness - self-absorbed and uninterested in the world, Smith leaves the mail on the mat and continues his deliberations. Whatever people say about "Bill Is Dead" or "Birthday Song", this is my choice of Fall weepie.

They seemed to dispose of this one quickly. Despite giving them their highest chart debut yet, no singles were lifted from the album, Cog Sinister lacking the funds to issue the remixes of "So What About It?". Few choose this as a favourite and it feels transitional; for the next few years, Smith would steadily add to the group and they would grow to a 7 piece before he would reach for his well-bloodied axe again. In summary, "Shift-Work" is perfectly enjoyable, it's just a bit slight. C-Mac Rating - 6.25/10

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