For many fans, The Fall’s best lineups featured two drummers. House of All, consisting exclusively of former members of The Fall, certainly have plenty to choose from, and for their third album, Martin Bramah, Pete Greenway, Paul Hanley, Stephen Hanley and Simon Wolstencroft have been joined by a third drummer – none other than Karl Burns, one of the pair who played on Hex Enduction Hour. Almost unanimously hailed as an early career peak, it was the first to feature a two-drummer lineup.
Appropriately, ‘The Good Englishman’ opens with a barrage of drums. And with rolling keyboards, strolling bass and guitars which cut and slide across one another, it very much has the vibe of early 80s Fall. The magnificence lies in the fact that where are countless bands who have tried to sound like The Fall, the players on this record are the reason The Fall sounded like The Fall. As Bramah put it in an interview in 2023, they’re not trying to sound like The Fall, but are “honouring what Mark taught us” – and certainly, Bramah’s vocals are very much his own, while still bearing a distinctly Mancunian twang.
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It’s one of those songs that makes unexpected detours, swerves and veers, breaks off and returns: it’s not quite ‘The Classical’, but has that spark of imagination, in addition to a melody you can actually hum along to.
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