A posthumous “final” album from The Fall is coming out, eight years after the death of Mark E Smith.
The last album from the British post-punk band to feature the singer was 2017’s ‘New Facts Emerge’, which was their 31st studio record. Smith died in January 2018, with his family later revealing that the loss came after a long battle with terminal lung and kidney cancer.
Now, eight years on, it has been revealed that the band were working on another album before his passing, and it is finally going to be released.
As per Ed Blaney, who worked briefly as the band’s manager and also joined the line-up in the early ‘00s, the new album has been completed and is titled ‘Post Script’.
Taking to Facebook to share the news, Blaney said: “Have spent most the afternoon today listening to the final mixes of the official final studio album by The Fall, without any doubt I can say it’s an absolute brilliant album.
“A Fall fans dream and some … and for all the eager Fall fans awaiting the news, its release date and order details are imminent. The album is called ‘Post Script’ with mine absolute bangers.”
Based on the post, more information about the release is expected very soon.
The Fall formed after Smith saw the Sex Pistols play at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, and took their name from the Albert Camus novel. Their debut EP, ‘Bingo-Master’s Break Out!’ dropped in 1978, followed the next year by their debut album ‘Live At The Witch Trials’.
Their most commercially successful period was during the ’80s – when Smith was married to The Fall’s American guitarist Brix Smith – and albums included 1984’s ‘The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall’, 1985’s ‘This Nation’s Saving Grace’, 1986’s ‘Bend Sinister’ and 1988’s ‘The Frenz Experiment’.
“Quickly, Smith began to craft a complex literary voice for himself which became as unmistakable as his own abrasive vocals,” read an obituary from NME after Smith’s death.
“Musically, they would create hypnotic recurring patterns, best summed up by one of Smith’s lyrics: ‘The three Rs are repetition, repetition, repetition.’ An early and consistent fan and champion of the band was Radio 1’s John Peel, who claimed The Fall were his favourite band because: ‘They’re always different, but always the same’.”
In 2010, Smith collaborated with Gorillaz on their album ‘Plastic Beach’, and his vocals also featured on the band’s latest album ‘The Mountain’. He featured on song ‘Delirium’, and was one of many late artists to have their vocals featured as part of the ‘Voices From Elsewhere’ – joining Rhythm maestro Tony Allen, late D12 rapper Proof, Dennis Hopper, Bobby Womack, and De La Soul‘s Dave Jolicoeur.
In 2022 – four years after Smith’s death – five musicians who played as part of The Fall throughout the band’s various line-up changes assembled to create a new group called House Of All, describing themselves as “A Fall Family Continuum project”.
The following year, the family of Smith – who was The Fall’s only constant member until its disbandment after his death in 2018 – rejected the group, describing the project as “extremely offensive”.
“Whilst we wish you well in your future career and projects, we would like to make it quite clear and simple that the Family and Estate of Mark E. Smith in no way endorse nor wish to be associated with ‘House of All’,” they wrote at the time.
“Not only do we find this extremely offensive and very misleading to the wider audience and fans of Mark E. Smith & The Fall, but it also causes us much sorrow, distress and discomfort.”
The band responded, saying that their work “stands on its own” and outlining that they “never sought “to deny or disguise its roots.”
In the time since Smith’s death, Brix Smith has also released a debut solo album ‘Valley Of The Dolls’ in 2023, and told NME that she considers it “the best thing I’ve done since The Fall”.
“I can die happy now,” she added. “For so long I’ve been a part of a band or hiding within a band. And I just thought it’s time to fucking stand up and own it and own what I do.
“It’s time to fucking put my head above the parapet and stand up there and say I am Brix Smith.”
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