Are You Are Missing Winner

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Are You Are Missing Winner
Are You Are Missing Winner cover
Studio album by The Fall
Released 5 November 2001
Recorded 2001
Genre Rock
Length 47:47
Label Cog Sinister / Voiceprint
Producer Mark E. Smith, Jim Watts, Spencer Birtwhistle, Ed Blaney
Professional reviews
The Fall chronology
Liverpool 78
(2001)		 Are You Are Missing Winner
(2001)		 2G+2
(2002)

Are You Are Missing Winner is an album by British rock band The Fall, released in November 2001 on CD and in January 2002 as a vinyl picture disc. Since the previous year's release of the critically acclaimed The Unutterable, Fall front man Mark E. Smith had replaced his entire band with a new line-up, a fact he acknowledges in a refrain in the album's opening track: "We are the new Fall". The Unutterable's flirtation with drum and bass is replaced on Are You Are Missing Winner by a more rockabilly-influenced sound.

The album features a cover version of the northern soul track "Gotta See Jane", originally by R. Dean Taylor (The Fall had previously achieved a minor hit in 1987 with a version of Taylor's "There's a Ghost in My House"). Also featured are versions of Leadbelly's "The Bourgeois Blues", as "Bourgeois Town"; and of Iggy Pop's "African Man", as "Ibis-Afro Man"; the latter being particularly experimental with different recordings of the track frequently playing simultaneously throughout.

Critical reception to Are You Are Missing Winner was somewhat mixed, often focusing unfavourably on the contrast with The Unutterable. Among the album's more negative reviews is that of John Bush of the All Music Guide, who suggests, "Are You Are Missing Winner represents a rare misstep for the mighty Fall.[1]" Edwin Pouncey, writing in The Wire, is more upbeat: "…Smith scatterguns half remembered lyrics and conducts a whirlpool of splintered guitar, dishevelled drum and battered bass sounds with a Quasimodic Gene Vincent leather gloved fist that claws even deeper into the raw clay of innovation that birthed rock 'n' roll and continues to fuel Smith's unique vision.[2]"

Contents

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Jim's "The Fall"" (Mark E. Smith, Jim Watts) – 2:39
  2. "Bourgeois Town" (Leadbelly, arr. Smith) – 3:41 (credited incorrectly to Robert Johnson in album liner notes)
  3. "Crop-Dust" (Smith, Spencer Birtwhistle) – 5:31
  4. "My Ex-Classmates' Kids" (Smith, Ed Blaney) – 4:51
  5. "Kick the Can" (Smith, Ben Pritchard) – 5:13
  6. "Gotta See Jane" (R. Dean Taylor) – 2:23
  7. "Ibis-Afro Man" (Iggy Pop, Scott Thurston, Smith, Watts) – 9:32
  8. "The Acute" (Smith, Brian Fanning) – 3:19
  9. "Hollow Mind" (Smith, Blaney) – 3:32
  10. "Reprise: Jane – Prof Mick – Ey Bastardo" (Birtwhistle, Blaney) – 7:00

[edit] 2006 edition

The album was remastered and expanded by Castle Music in 2006. The sound quality is audibly less erratic than on the original edition and 6 extra tracks are added as follows:

  1. "Rude (All The Time)" (Smith, Blaney) – 2:44
  2. "I Wake Up In The City" (Smith, Blaney) – 4:40
  3. "New Formation Sermon" (Smith) – 2:04
  4. "Distilled Mug Art" (Smith, Blaney) – 3:33
  5. "My Ex-Classmates' Kids (live in Cologne 23rd October 2001)" (Smith, Blaney) – 4:59
  6. "Where's The Fuckin' Taxi? Cunt" (Smith, Blaney, Fanning, Les Fisher) – 5:09

"Rude (All The Time)" and "I Wake Up In the City" were previously issued on a 7" single by Flitwick Records in an edition of 500, all of which were given away to subscribers free of charge. "...City", "New Formation Sermon" and "Distilled Mug Art" were the 3 studio tracks on 2G+2. The live "..Ex-Classmates'.." was included on the single release of "Theme From Sparta F.C. #2". The final track was taken from the controversial "Rude (All The Time)" EP issued by Voiceprint in 2005 and is little more than a recorded discussion amongst the credited personnel.

[edit] Personnel

  • Mark E. Smith – vocals
  • Ben Pritchard – guitar, vocals
  • Jim Watts – bass guitar, guitar, vocals
  • Spencer Birtwistle – drums
  • Brian Fanning – guitar, vocals
  • Ed Blaney – guitar, vocals
  • Julia Nagle - keyboards on "Ibis-Afro Man" - uncredited; a section of this track is taken from a live recording from 23rd April 2001 at the Mean Fiddler in London. Nagle was still in the band at this point and is clearly heard on the track[1].

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bush, John. Review. All Music Guide. Retrieved 6 Feb. 2006.
  2. ^ Pouncey, Edwin (Feb. 2002). Review. The Wire.

[edit] External links

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The Fall
Mark E. Smith | Other members
Studio albums
Live albums
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