This Nation's Saving Grace

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This Nation's Saving Grace
Studio album by The Fall
Released	23 September 1985
Recorded	1985
Genre	Rock
Length	47:12 / 65:55 (Cassette/CD)
Label	Beggars Banquet
Producer(s)	John Leckie
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Pitchfork Media (10/10) link Mark Prindle link
The Fall chronology
The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall (1984)	This Nation's Saving Grace (1985)	Bend Sinister (1986)

This Nation's Saving Grace is an LP by The Fall, originally released in 1985. It reached number 58 in the UK charts.

The group were without Paul Hanley, who left amicably towards the end of 1984. However, they were also briefly without bassist Steve Hanley who took four months paternity leave from the band in the early part of the year. A UK and US tour were undertaken and recording began with Simon Rogers as Hanley's understudy. The group had met Rogers through ballet dancer Michael Clark and he had already co-produced the early recordings of Brix Smith's other group The Adult Net. When Hanley returned, Rogers remained with the group, switching to keyboards and guitar - Hanley's return was marked with the inscription "S Hanley! He's Back" on the run-out groove of side one of the album.

The album is frequently cited as one of the group's finest. It ranked at #46 in Spin's "100 Greatest Albums 1985-2005" and the CD edition was awarded the rare accolade of 10/10 by Pitchfork.

Contents 1 Track listing 1.1 LP 1.1.1 Side one 1.1.2 Side two 1.2 CD/Cassette 2 Personnel 3 Trivia

[edit] Track listing

[edit] LP

[edit] Side one

1. "Mansion"
2. "Bombast"
3. "Barmy"
4. "What You Need"
5. "Spoilt Victorian Child"
6. "L.A."

[edit] Side two

1. "Gut of the Quantifier"
2. "My New House"
3. "Paintwork"
4. "I Am Damo Suzuki"
5. "To Nkroachment: Yarbles"

[edit] CD/Cassette

1. "Mansion" (Brix E. Smith) – 1:21
2. "Bombast" (Mark E. Smith, Steve Hanley) – 3:08
3. "Barmy" (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 5:21
4. "What You Need" (M. Smith, Craig Scanlon) – 4:50
5. "Spoilt Victorian Child" (M. Smith, Simon Rogers) – 4:13
6. "L.A." (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 4:10
7. "Vixen" (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 4:01
8. "Couldn't Get Ahead" (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 2:36
9. "Gut of the Quantifier" (M. Smith, Karl Burns, Rogers, B. Smith) – 5:15
10. "My New House" (M. Smith) – 5:16
11. "Paintwork" (M. Smith, Rogers, Scanlon) – 6:38
12. "I Am Damo Suzuki" (M. Smith, Burns, B. Smith) – 5:41
13. "To Nkroachment: Yarbles" (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 1:23
14. "Petty (Thief) Lout" (M. Smith, Scanlon) – 5:21
15. "Rollin' Dany" (J. Stein, P. Edwards) – 2:24
16. "Cruisers Creek" (M. Smith, Rogers) – 4:15

• Note: tracks 7, 8, 14, and 15 are from the US only By Grace Are Ye Saved EP, an expanded version of the UK "Couldn't Get Ahead"/"Rollin' Dany" single. "Cruisers Creek" was a single from later that same year (after the album was released), so the CD issue effectively compiles all of the band's 1985 output.

[edit] Personnel

• Mark E. Smith – vocals, violin, guitar
• Craig Scanlon – guitar
• Brix Smith – guitar, vocals
• Steve Hanley – bass guitar
• Simon Rogers – keyboards, guitar, bass guitar
• Karl Burns – drums; backing vocals on "Rollin' Dany"

[edit] Trivia

• Yarbles (from the song entitled "To:Nkroachment: Yarbles") appears in the novel to A Clockwork Orange as Nadsat for testicles or bollocks.
• The CD edition of the album was covered in its entirety by members of the forum on the band's then-official website with the approval of Mark E. Smith[1]. The complete album was also covered in concert by Triple Gang, who featured members of Faith No More and Fudge Tunnel[2].

The Fall
Mark E. Smith | Other members
Studio albums
Live at the Witch Trials | Dragnet | Grotesque | Slates | Hex Enduction Hour Room to Live | Perverted by Language | The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall This Nation's Saving Grace | Bend Sinister | The Frenz Experiment | I Am Kurious Oranj Extricate | Shift-Work | Code: Selfish | The Infotainment Scan | Middle Class Revolt Cerebral Caustic | The Light User Syndrome | Levitate | The Marshall Suite | The Unutterable Are You Are Missing Winner | The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country on the Click) | Fall Heads Roll | Reformation Post TLC
Related articles
Discography | Manchester | John Peel