As promised a week or two ago I’ve now finally picked out my favorite The Fall album. I guess it was always going to be the album called Hex Enduction Hour. I guess it could be another one, this one was for a very long time was the to go to album when it came to The Fall for me. After yesterday’s post it’s an album part recorded in Iceland, now I don’t know if any other English bands recorded albums in Iceland in the early 80’s but I think I’ll say it might be a pretty rare, you can correct me if you know better? It’s yet another post-punk band, which is safety to say now after doing these posts about favorite albums and getting to 50 yesterday, it’s my fav style of music. Recorded in 1981 and released in 82 is the fourth album by Mark E. Smith and his mates called The Fall.
After finally decide on Hex album I did check out other music lists and surprising missing by a lot of them, The Fall does feature on way more than I was thinking there would so that’s cool but different albums. I can’t see why this one is missing other than just because the huge output by The Fall, still going now since the late 70’s/early 80’s and have hundreds of releases out by now. Anyway it’s on Spin magazine’s The 50 Most Essential Punk Records at number 24, NME magazine’s The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time from 2013 at number 201, Uncut magazine’s 200 Greatest Albums Of All Time from just last year at number 196 and that seems about right, those are the ones that would like Hex.
Hip Priest was perfectly used in 1991 in a closing scenes of The Silence Of The Lambs film. Which thinking about that now, it would my first hearing any The Fall song. Now bit of a funny story as a side-note here my sister was sent to the video shop on the day before Christmas eve that year and she must have just turned 18 or something then because we watched that movie plus Basic Instinct and The Hand That Rock The Cradle over the next couple of days. Funny as fuck now but at the time you wanna bet it was a very merry Xmas we were having after watch all that stuff. I don’t think she was allowed to go and pick the movies again by herself for a while after that too.
Nick Cave was on that Rage TV show a couple years later playing the Victoria video clip and as I think I’ve pointed out here on my blog before I pretty much found all the songs/artists/albums he played that night even Barry White and The Carpenters. Over the years I’ve been adding a lot of The Fall albums but I can’t remember when I got this one but it’s yet another one I updated a few year back with the 2CD reissue. For years I kept the receipts of all the records I buy but I think it was an old ex-gf just thrown them all away once when she was clearing up. For years I could tell what date and where I bought what, which would be good for something like this blog now but maybe that might just be totally mad!
Anyway once again, I’ve gone down some other rabbit hole here but who the hell else loves The Fall now?
Hex Enduction Hour track listing and times:
1. The Classical – 5:16
2. Jawbone and the Air Rifle – 3:43
3. Hip Priest – 7:45
4. Fortress / Deer Park – 6:41
5. Mere Pseud Mag. Ed. – 2:50
6. Winter (Hostel-Maxi) – 4:27
7. Winter 2 – 4:33
8. Just Step S’ways – 3:22
9. Who Makes the Nazis? – 4:27
10. Iceland – 6:42
11. And This Day – 10:18
OK, because yesterday I got up to the 50th album in my Classic Albums list/tag. I’ve gone totally mad over night reordering the whole list below by the hits each post/album has got since starting this project about gibbering on about the records I love the most. I hope someone else finds this interesting or something because it’s total bananas to do with all the links which I hope someone might click on. Vote for your own favorite albums I’ve written about dear readers by your clicks. Then again I can’t see myself doing something like this again!
(1st with the gold medal) Rust In Peace by Megadeth
(2nd with the silver medal) The Soft ‘N’ Sexy Sound by Dave Graney ‘N’ The Coral Snakes
(3rd with the bronze medal) The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn by Pink Floyd
(4th two-way tie) Henry’s Dream by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds / Gala Mill by The Drones
(5th) Station To Station by David Bowie
(6th) Tales From The Australian Underground – Volume 1 & 2 by Various Artists
(7th) Batman by Prince
(8th) Work (Work, Work) by HTRK
(9th) Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs by Marty Robbins
(10th two-way tie) Songs Of Love And Hate by Leonard Cohen / Love Of Life by Swans
(11th) The Future by Leonard Cohen
(12th two-way tie) Whatever You Love, You Are by Dirty Three / Drowning In The Fountain Of Youth by Dan Kelly And The Alpha Males
(13th two-way tie) Black Monk Time by The Monks / Lulu by Lou Reed & Metallica
(14th) Sex by The Necks
(15th) Unplugged In New York by Nirvana
(16th) Ex Tropical by Lost Animal
(17th two-way tie) The White House by The Dead C / Aerial by Kate Bush
(18th) Blue Valentine by Tom Waits
(19th two-way tie) Emergency Ward by Nina Simone / Law Of Nature by Laughing Clowns
(20th) Silence Is Sexy by Einstürzende Neubauten
(21st) Rock For Light by Bad Brains
(22nd three-way tie) In The Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra / What Are Rock Stars Doing Today by Magic Dirt / Where Joy Kills Sorrow by Various Artists
(23rd two-way tie) Kings Of The Wild Frontier by Adam And The Ants / Sings Christmas Carols by Mark Kozelek
(24th two-way tie) Big Name, No Blankets by Warumpi Band / Mutiny/The Bad Seed by The Birthday Party
(25th two-way tie) King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime by Faith No More / Rid Of Me by PJ Harvey
(26th two-way tie) Warm Leatherette by Grace Jones / Kaira by Toumani Diabaté
(27th three-way tie) Paradise by My Disco / In The Pines by The Triffids / Jean Lee And The Yellow Dog by Ed Kuepper
(28th) Last Splash by The Breeders
(29th) Super Ape by Lee “Scratch” Perry & The Upsetters
(30th two-way tie) The Definitive by Blind Willie McTell / Horses by Patti Smith
(31st two-way tie) (I’m) Stranded by The Saints / Bahdeni Nami by Omar Souleyman
(32nd) Ascension by John Coltrane
(33rd) TV Sky by The Young Gods
(Not counted now because it was only posted yesterday which was when I was making this bloody silly list) Vespertine by Björk
So far these really are not my most popular posts here on my blog. They are way down to other stuff but I do like rabbiting and hopping about my favorite albums. It all might be pointless or something but I guess I find it real fun in some odd way. Three of these posts have got five likes each and Prince has six which the top amount of likes for one of my posts, if anyone else cares?
I would like more comments but you can’t have everything, hey? Please do leave reply about this or any or even all the albums, if you’ll like too?
a1000mistakes 
Thanks for linking me here 🙂
Good read, I don’t know of many English bands that recorded in Iceland in the 80s… wonder what inspired that choice?
LikeLiked by 1 person
They toured there and just stay to record part of the album, I did look in his autobio book to double check the reason behind and yeah they play two shows and the recording was done in an old cinema but main thing Smith writes about at the time is he couldn’t buy a beer because it was against the law there and had to drink pints of peach schnapps!
LikeLiked by 1 person