Bend Sinister
Studio album by
the Fall
Released29 September 1986[1]
RecordedApril–July 1986
StudioAbbey Road Studios, London
Square One, Bury
Yellow 2, Stockport
GenrePost-punk
Length43:12
LabelBeggars Banquet
ProducerJohn Leckie
The Fall chronology
This Nation's Saving Grace
(1985)		 Bend Sinister
(1986)		 The Frenz Experiment
(1988)
Singles from Bend Sinister
  1. "Mr. Pharmacist"
    Released: 1 September 1986

Bend Sinister is the ninth studio album by English post-punk band the Fall. It was released in September 1986 by record label Beggars Banquet.

Recording and production

Bend Sinister was the third and last Fall album to be produced by John Leckie. When recording began, the band was without a drummer, as Karl Burns was fired shortly before sessions began. Ex-member Paul Hanley stepped in at first before permanent replacement Simon Wolstencroft was found. However, Leckie and Mark E. Smith argued during the recording, with Smith complaining that "he'd always swamp everything, y'know, put the psychedelic sounds over it". Leckie, for his part, drew the line at Smith's insistence that some tracks be mastered from a standard audio cassette that Smith had been carrying around and listening to on a Walkman.[2]

Julia Adamson, who engineered some of the recording sessions, would eventually join the Fall in 1995 as a keyboard/guitar player.

Content

The album's title, a heraldic term, is taken from Vladimir Nabokov's 1947 novel of the same name.

Release

Bend Sinister was released in June 1986 by Beggars Banquet. It reached number 36 in the UK charts.[3] It also became the first Fall album to be released on CD, with the addition of single "Living Too Late" and B-side "Auto-Tech Pilot".

The record was released in the USA and Australia in 1987 on Big Time Records re-titled as The Domesday Pay-Off Triad -Plus! with a different cover art, and replacing several tracks with songs from non-album singles "Hey! Luciani" (released on 8 December 1986) and "There's a Ghost in My House" (released on 27 April 1987).[4]

The album was reissued by Beggars Arkive in March 2019. The new 2CD/2LP edition, titled Bend Sinister / The Domesday Pay-Off Triad-Plus!, was newly transferred and remastered from original analogue tapes, and features original album on disc 1 and non-album tracks from the contemporary singles on disc 2; in addition, the CD version contains the 1986 Peel session and several previously unreleased alternate mixes.[5]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[6]

Bend Sinister was ranked number 7 among the "Albums of the Year" for 1986 by NME.[7] In his retrospective review, Ned Raggett of AllMusic described it as a "distinctly down affair",[6] while Trouser Press called it "a rather gloomy, dark-sounding record".[8] Al Spicer, in The Rough Guide to Rock, called the album "not a great album by Fall standards".[9]

Neither Smith nor Leckie spoke highly of the album in later years.[10][11] Nonetheless, the record contains the group's version of "Mr. Pharmacist", originally by US garage rock band The Other Half, which gave the Fall their first UK Top 75 entry[3] and remained a regular feature of the group's live set.

Track listing

Vinyl LP

Side One
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."R.O.D."Mark E. Smith, Brix Smith, Craig Scanlon, Simon Rogers, Simon Wolstencroft4:31
2."Dktr. Faustus"M. Smith, Scanlon5:32
3."Shoulder Pads 1#"M. Smith, B. Smith2:54
4."Mr Pharmacist"Jeff Nowlen2:17
5."Gross Chapel – British Grenadiers"M. Smith, Scanlon, Steve Hanley7:20
Total length:22:34
Side Two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."US 80's–90's"M. Smith, B. Smith4:34
2."Terry Waite Sez"M. Smith, B. Smith1:37
3."Bournemouth Runner"M. Smith, B. Smith, Hanley6:05
4."Riddler!"M. Smith, B. Smith, Rogers6:22
5."Shoulder Pads 2#"M. Smith, B. Smith1:56
Total length:20:31

CD/cassette

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."R.O.D."M. Smith, B. Smith, Scanlon, Rogers, Wolstencroft4:31
2."Dktr. Faustus"M. Smith, Scanlon5:32
3."Shoulder Pads 1#"M. Smith, B. Smith2:54
4."Mr Pharmacist"Nowlen2:17
5."Gross Chapel – British Grenadiers"M. Smith, Scanlon, Hanley7:20
6."Living Too Late"M. Smith4:35
7."US 80's–90's"M. Smith, B. Smith4:34
8."Terry Waite Sez"M. Smith, B. Smith1:37
9."Bournemouth Runner"M. Smith, B. Smith, Hanley6:05
10."Riddler!"M. Smith, B. Smith, Rogers6:22
11."Shoulder Pads 2#"M. Smith, B. Smith1:56
12."Auto-Tech Pilot"M. Smith, Hanley4:51
13."Town and Country Hobgoblins" (live recording of "City Hobgoblins", cassette only)M. Smith, Scanlon, Hanley, Marc Riley3:00
Total length:52:31

The Domesday Pay-Off Triad-Plus!

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."There's a Ghost in My House"Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland, R. Dean Taylor2:36
2."US 80's–90's"M. Smith, B. Smith4:34
3."Shoulder Pads 1#"M. Smith, B. Smith2:54
4."Mr Pharmacist"Nowlen2:17
5."Riddler!"M. Smith, B. Smith, Rogers6:22
6."Hey! Luciani"M. Smith, B. Smith, Hanley3:34
7."Haf Found Bormann"M. Smith2:43
8."Terry Waite Sez"M. Smith, B. Smith1:37
9."R.O.D."M. Smith, B. Smith, Scanlon, Rogers, Wolstencroft4:31
10."Shoulder Pads 2#"M. Smith, B. Smith1:56
11."Gross Chapel – British Grenadiers"M. Smith, Scanlon, Hanley7:20

2019 reissue

Disc 1 (Bend Sinister)

  • As per original 1986 LP

Disc 2 (The Domesday Pay-Off Triad-Plus!)

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Living Too Late" (single A-side, 1986)M. Smith4:35
2."Hot Aftershave Bop" ("Living Too Late" single B-side)M. Smith, Hanley3:45
3."Lucifer Over Lancashire" ("Mr. Pharmacist" single B-side, 1986)M. Smith, Hanley5:11
4."Auto Tech Pilot" ("Mr. Pharmacist" single B-side)M. Smith, Hanley4:53
5."Hey! Luciani" (single A-side, 1986)M. Smith, B. Smith, Scanlon, Hanley3:35
6."Entitled" ("Hey! Luciani" single B-side)M. Smith, Scanlon, Hanley3:15
7."Shouder Pads #1B" ("Hey! Luciani" single B-side)M. Smith, B. Smith5:04
8."Living Too Long" ("Living Too Late" single B-side)M. Smith, Scanlon, Rogers, Hanley7:09
9."R.O.D." (Peel Session, 29 June 1986)M. Smith, B. Smith, Scanlon, Rogers, Wolstencroft4:27
10."Gross Chapel - GB Grenadiers" (Peel Session, 29 June 1986)M. Smith, Scanlon, Hanley6:21
11."U.S. 80's-90's" (Peel Session, 29 June 1986)M. Smith, B. Smith4:54
12."Hot Aftershave Bop" (Peel Session, 29 June 1986)M. Smith, Hanley3:11
13."Luciani" (original version)M. Smith, B. Smith, Scanlon, Hanley3:58
14."Dktr. Faustus" (rough mix)M. Smith, Scanlon5:37
15."Terry Waite Sez" (Yellow 2 mix)M. Smith, B. Smith1:45
16."Lucifer Over Lancashire" (Abbey Road - take 2)M. Smith, Hanley4:41
17."Entitled" (Abbey Road - take 2)M. Smith, Scanlon, Hanley2:56
18."Town and Country Hobgoblins" ("City Hobgoblins" live at the Town and Country Club, 12 July 1986)M. Smith, Scanlon, Hanley, Riley2:32
Total length:78:07
  • Tracks 13-17 are previously unreleased. Tracks 9-18 only available on CD version.

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ "The Fall online - Discography". thefall.org. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  2. ↑ "[Q article]". Q (Special Edition: Morrissey & The Story of Manchester). 2006.
  3. 1 2 "Fall | Official Charts Company". Official Charts. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "The Fall online - Discography".
  5. ↑ "Fall, The – Bend Sinister / The Domesday Pay-Off – plus". The Arkive. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  6. 1 2 Raggett, Ned. "Bend Sinister – The Fall | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  7. ↑ "Albums and Tracks of the Year". NME. 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  8. ↑ Azerrad, Michael; Wolk, Douglas; Pattyn, Jay. "trouserpress.com :: Fall". Trouser Press. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  9. ↑ Spicer, Al (2003). Buckley, Peter (ed.). The Rough Guide to Rock. Rough Guides. p. 359. ISBN 9781843531050. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  10. ↑ "[Q article]". Q (Special Edition: Morrissey & The Story of Manchester). 2006.
  11. ↑ Taylor, Steve (27 September 2006). The A to X of Alternative Music. A&C Black. p. 106. ISBN 9780826482174. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  12. ↑ Simpson, Dave (2009) [2008]. The Fallen (Paperback). Canongate. p. 225.
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