The Fall: Hex Enduction Hour (1982)
Apparently today is Fall Friday -- not sure why, but woke up to a bunch of Fall-related posts on my Twitter feed, and felt inspired to kick the morning off with some Fall. As noted previously , I'm partial to the band's albums from the mid- and late-80s, when Mark E. Smith's then-wife Brix added a slightly more pop-oriented sound to Mark's bitter miscreant rantings, polishing (slightly) the band's art-damaged post-punk aesthetic. Still, their fourth album, 1982's Hex Enduction Hour , is probably their first great album, and one of the records that introduced me to the band back in college (thanks, Chris!). It's certainly a challenging album, not something I recommend to friends, but for anyone with at least some attraction to the band it's a riveting listen. Or, at least for me, the half I like is pretty great; some of this is beyond my patience level. Still, the great half makes it pretty damn captivating. The stand-out track is opener "The Classic
