Mark E Smith has made an art form out of being the pissed-up prick that stumbles on to the stage at his local pub to perform a rendition of ‘Pretty Vacant’. Mindlessly belligerent, he renders every vowel unintelligible by strangling it within an inch of its life. Car-crash-aoke, if you like. Still and all, we wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s only one Mark E Smith.
New Facts Emerge is the 38th album from the man we may as well refer to as The Fall, as he is the only original member. That’s not to naysay the current incarnation – Pete Greenway, Dave Spurr and Keiron Melling joined in 2006, making them the longest-serving/suffering line-up to date.
They are the Panzer division to Smith’s mercurial Kommandant; the solid canvas for Smith to dribble and spray his words over, in Pollock-like fashion.
Opening track ‘Segue’ is a perfect illustration of my opening par, right down to the clink of pint glasses in the background. What follows is a succession of typically enigmatic song titles: ‘Brillo De Facto’, ‘Couples Vs Jobless Mid 30s’ (Is he really singing “the great jelly”?!),’O! Zztrrk Man’ and ‘Gibbos Gibsun’ – where he appears to declare “he rolls his ass.”
Smith rails like Aguirre on his raft of monkeys. Against what, I do not know. It doesn’t really matter what he’s saying, it’s enough that it is said. Personally I found the album useful for blasting through the partition wall at my Sting-loving neighbour.