Grotesque (After the Gramme)

This was the first album for drummer Paul Hanley (Steve Hanley's younger brother), who joined the Fall earlier in the year, aged 15. Kay Carroll, the group's manager, played kazoo on "New Face in Hell" and added backing vocals. Grotesque was recorded at Cargo Studios in Rochdale and Street Level in London, with production by the group and Grant Showbiz, Geoff Travis and Mayo Thompson. According to the Slates & Dates press release, this album was, at one point, to be titled After the Gramme – The Grotesque Peasants. == Content ==

The Fall's music at the time was described as "Mancabilly", and by Smith himself as "Country 'n' Northern". The album opens with "Pay Your Rates", the lyric described as one that "excoriates small-minded conformity". It has been described as "a paranoid tale of sinister government agencies 'disappearing' innocent amateur radio hams". The song makes reference to the band's meeting with A&M Records co-founder Herb Alpert ("big A&M Herb was there") while seeking an American record deal. Side one closes with "The Container Drivers", which Al Spicer described as "[shattering] the stereotype of the noble trucker, depicting a world of loudmouthed ignorance and bowel-rotting gluttony". was viewed by AllMusic as "Smith's own take on the long-standing "soft south/grim north" dichotomy in English society", while Robert Ham saw it as "a literary vision of political upheaval in Northern England". Rolling Stone merely saw it as Smith shouting out his hometown. == Reception ==

In contemporary reviews, Johnny Waller, reviewing Grotesque for Sounds, hailed the album as "rock n' roll with a conscience". Chris Westwood of Record Mirror viewed it as a disappointment, finding that the band's cynical outlook had become predictable. Grotesque was included in Al Spicer's 1999 book Rock: 100 Essential CDs, in which he described it as "among the Fall's most powerful statements, and recorded by the most inventive of the band's constantly evolving line-ups". In 2020, Rolling Stone included Grotesque (After the Gramme) in its "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list, praising the band for its "ability to craft impossibly catchy songs that simultaneously sound like they're shaking apart at the seams". == Reissues ==

Grotesque was first reissued through Castle Music in 1993. In 1998, Cog Sinister, Mark E. Smith's own imprint, released a poorly mastered edition with significant vinyl noise. However, an improved edition followed almost immediately through Castle, adding four bonus tracks: "How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'", "City Hobgoblins", "Totally Wired" and "Putta Block", the last of these being slightly edited from the original "Totally Wired" single. The final and current edition, again on Castle, was properly remastered, including the four bonus tracks ("Putta Block" still being slightly cut) and a "self-interview" by Smith that had been used for promotional purposes upon the album's original release. The original ten-track album was reissued on vinyl by the Turning Point label in 2002, with a two-LP edition being issued by Earmark in 2005. The latter edition replicated the definitive track listing of the 2004 CD. It was released again on vinyl in 2016 by Superior Viaduct, and again by Music On Vinyl in 2023, though with track 10 replaced by a live version taken from A Part of America Therein, 1981. == Track listing ==

;The Fall • Mark E. Smith – vocals, tape operation, kazoo (track 3), guitar • Marc Riley – guitar, keyboards • Craig Scanlon – guitar (credited as 'Craig Scanlan') • Steve Hanley – bass guitar • Paul Hanley – drums ;Additional musicians • Kay Carroll – additional vocals ;Technical • The Fall – production (1–10) • Geoff Travis – production (1–10) • Grant Showbiz – production (1–5) • Mayo Thompson – production (1–5) • John Brierley – engineering • George "Porky" Peckham – mastering • Suzanne Smith – cover artwork Weekly charts == References ==