The Fall

New Facts Emerge

Arguably the 2017 Fall is the purest version of the band there has ever been. This, you imagine, is what the inside of Smiths fogged head sounds like. Which is possibly why New Facts Emerge is one of the best things Smith has put his name too in a decade, the most complete and satisfyingly bonkers Fall album since 2008’s Imperial Wax Solvent.

New Facts Emerge could be said to be business as usual: ie. it cannot be quantified, and pulses with raw music, stimulating confusion and a certain monstrous glee.

New Facts Emerge is still rowdy and absorbing stuff, and proves that Mark E. Smith and his compatriots are growing old in a gloriously ungraceful fashion.

At 60, Smith continues, as very few of his peers have from the punk era, to challenge audiences.

Despite their past volatility, these days the outfit have a relatively stable lineup – although scholars will note that Smith’s wife, keyboardist Elena Poulou, has now left. It doesn’t seem to have had much of an effect on New Facts Emerge, however, which continues to plough a familiar, fractious furrow.

Whilst not reprehensible, New Facts Emerge is certainly massively forgettable. For a band with such a legacy, that’s surely a much worse fate.