This Nation's Saving Grace

This Nation's Saving Grace
Studio album by The Fall
Released 23 September 1985
Recorded 1985
Genre Post-punk
Length 47:17
Label Beggars Banquet
Producer John Leckie
The Fall chronology
The Wonderful and Frightening World Of...
(1984)		 This Nation's Saving Grace
(1985)		 Bend Sinister
(1986)

This Nation's Saving Grace is the eighth studio album by English post-punk band The Fall. It was released in 1985 by record label Beggars Banquet.

The album peaked at number 54 in the UK Albums Chart and was well received by critics. According to The Guardian, the album "finds [The Fall] operating just on the edge of the mainstream and at the peak of their accessibility and yet strangeness".[1]

Background and production

Paul Hanley left The Fall in November 1984, leaving Karl Burns as the sole drummer and ending their classic dual drummer line up. His brother, long term Fall bassist Steve Hanley, took four months' paternity leave in late 1984 and so played very little part in the writing of the album. He was replaced by Simon Rogers, a classically trained musician whom the group leader Mark E. Smith knew from working with dancer Michael Clarke. After Hanley's return, Rogers switched to guitar and keyboards. The Fall marked Hanley's reappearance with the inscription "S Hanley! He's Back" on the run-out groove on side one.

Content

Yarbles (from the song titled "To NK Roachment: Yarbles") appears in the novel A Clockwork Orange as Nadsat for testicles or bollocks. The song's lyrics "Everyday you have to die some/Everyday you have to cry some" alludes to a line that is almost exactly the same in the Lou Reed song "Home of the Brave", from his 1983 album Legendary Hearts.

"I Am Damo Suzuki" is a tribute to the seminal 1970s Krautrock group Can and their occasional vocalist Damo Suzuki. The riff descending in semitones is based on the end section of "Bel Air" from the Can album Future Days (a similar progression also features in "Don't Turn the Light On, Leave Me Alone" from the Soundtracks album), while the drum pattern is based on "Oh Yeah" from Tago Mago.

"What You Need" is titled after an episode of The Twilight Zone. The lyric "slippery shoes for your horrible feet" also originates from the plot of this episode.

Release

This Nation's Saving Grace was released on 23 September 1985 by record label Beggars Banquet. It reached number 54 in the UK Albums Chart.[2]

After tours of the North of England and the US, The Fall recorded the double A-sided single "Couldn't Get Ahead"/"Rollin' Dany" and subsequent single "Cruiser's Creek" with Simon Rogers standing in on bass guitar.[3]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[5]
Pitchfork Media10/10[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[7]
Uncut[8]
The Village VoiceB+[9]
Omnibus Edition
Review scores
SourceRating
Drowned in Sound10/10[10]
The Guardian[1]
Record Collector[11]

This Nation's Saving Grace has received critical acclaim.

Dave Simpson of The Guardian wrote, "this is a group thrillingly subverting the notion of what pop music is."[1]

Legacy

Pitchfork listed This Nation's Saving Grace as 13th best album of the 1980s. It ranked at 46 in Spin's list of the 100 greatest albums from 1985 to 2005.[12] Slant listed the album at number 93 in its list of the best albums of the 1980s.[13] The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[14]

The CD edition was covered in its entirety by members of the forum on the band's then-official website, with the approval of Mark E. Smith. The complete album was later covered in concert by Triple Gang, featuring members of Faith No More and Fudge Tunnel.[15]

Track listing

Side A
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Mansion"  Mark E. Smith 1:21
2. "Bombast"  Steve Hanley, M. Smith 3:08
3. "Barmy"  M. Smith 5:21
4. "What You Need"  Craig Scanlon, M. Smith 4:50
5. "Spoilt Victorian Child"  Simon Rogers, M. Smith 4:13
6. "L.A."  Brix Smith, M. Smith 4:10
Side B
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
7. "Gut of the Quantifier"  Karl Burns, M. Smith 5:16
8. "My New House"  M. Smith 5:16
9. "Paint Work"  Rogers, Scanlon, M. Smith 6:38
10. "I Am Damo Suzuki"  Burns, B. Smith, M. Smith 5:41
11. "To Nk Roachment: Yarbles"  B. Smith, M. Smith 1:23

Personnel

References

  1. 1 2 3 Simpson, Dave (15 December 2011). "The Fall: This Nation's Saving Grace Omnibus Edition – Review | Music | The Guardian". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  2. ↑ "Fall | Official Charts Company". Official Charts. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  3. ↑ Daryl Easlea – interview with Paul Hanley, "The Fall Box Set 1976 – 2007" accompanying booklet (Castle Music/Sanctuary 2007)
  4. ↑ Mills, Ted. "This Nation's Saving Grace – The Fall". AllMusic. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  5. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-84609-856-7.
  6. ↑ Tiffee, Bruce. "The Fall: This Nation's Saving Grace". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on 6 October 2001. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  7. ↑ Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian, eds. (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon & Schuster. pp. 292–94. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  8. ↑ "The Fall – This Nation's Saving Grace CD". CD Universe. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  9. ↑ Christgau, Robert (7 January 1986). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  10. ↑ Perry, Tom (20 January 2011). "Album Review: The Fall – This Nation's Saving Grace (Omnibus Edition)". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  11. ↑ Kennedy, Jake (March 2011). "The Fall – This Nation’s Saving Grace: Omnibus Edition". Record Collector (386). Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  12. ↑ "Spin Magazine's 100 Greatest Albums 1985-2005". rateyourmusic.com. Retrieved 2015-12-30.
  13. ↑ http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/feature/best-albums-of-the-1980s/308
  14. ↑ Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 978-0-7893-2074-2.
  15. ↑ "This Rock Scene's Saving Grace". sfweekly.com. 2000-07-12. Retrieved 2015-12-30.
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