With 28 studio albums and even more EP’s and live albums in 34 years of existence, The Fall has long been one of the most prolific acts in music. Since its inception, The Fall has experienced so many lineup changes that Menudo appears stable by comparison. The only constant throughout the history of The Fall is frontman Mark E. Smith. In a sense, The Fall and Mark E. Smith are one and the same.
Your Future Our Clutter is the latest studio album from the post-punk legend and his current incarnation of the band. While essentially the caustic words of Smith, the group’s driving, energetic music has made The Fall a band rather than a Smith spoken word project, regardless of its membership. That remains to be the case here, as well. “Bury” is a song in three parts, or specifically, a combination of three different takes on one song, that begins with the lowest of lo-fi and morphs into its final blustering form that is The Fall at its raucous best.
What makes Your Future Our Clutter sound unusually fresh for a 28th album is an absorption of a variety of influences. The Fall’s take on Wanda Jackson’s rockabilly classic “Funnel of Love”is one of its strongest covers in recent years. Most notable is “Cowboy George”: a Spaghetti Western meets Krautrocker held together with a Daft Punk sample. Collectively on this effort, Smith’s lyrics and delivery are as perplexing and tuneless as ever, and his often snide observations, reflections, and ramblings reach a touching pinnacle, as heard on album closer “Weather Report 2”. When Smith concludes with “you don’t deserve rock and roll” after four minutes of haunting electronic noise, we believe it.
The Fall has always been one of those acts people either love or hate, with little middle ground. Fans of The Fall will find plenty to enjoy in Your Future Our Clutter, while naysayers will only have their detracting criticisms validated. For first-time listeners, Your Future Our Clutter is as good of an introduction to the world of Mark E. Smith and company as any.