Track Listing

1. How I Wrote Elastic Man
2. City Hobgoblins
3. Totally Wired
4. Putta Block
5. Pay Your Rates
6. English Scheme
7. New Face in Hell
8. C'n'C-S Mithering
9. Container Drivers
10. Impression of J. Temperance
11. In the Park
12. W.M.C. - Blob 59
13. Gramme Friday
14. The N.W.R.A.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #683333 in Music
• Released on: 1998-08-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Customer Reviews

What The Fall was before Brix and techno
Northern England's working-class answer to Can at their zenith, 'Grotesque' is easily the quintessential Fall album. All extraneous elements are discarded: no Brix, no techno nonsense, just pure ME Smith and Co. Lo-fi, cantankerous, humorous, and infectious, 'Grotesque' is possibly the best product Manchester ever produced. 'English Scheme' and 'In the Park' alone make this record mandatory. And now with additional tracks...

Californians always think of sex, or think of death...
I am currently addicted.....almost 20 years ago, in the mid-80s, the cover of this album screamed at me to buy it from a Berkeley record shelf.....and hence the Fall was discovered. With the additional songs added at the front, this CD kicks even more arse than the lp, what with the awesome "How I Wrote Elastic Man" and "Totally Wired" added......also great is "English Scheme", "New Face in Hell" and "C'N'C-s Mithering"...Mark's wonderful Mancunian snarl and memorable observances set to irresistibly catchy, lo-fi rhythms....wow.....love it! Punk out! If you love Mark and the Fall, purchase!!

"they say I rip off Johnny Rotten", methinks Mark's better!!
This is a full album & 2 singles that came out before it. I'll start w/ the singles. Elastic Man & Totally Wired are in my esteemed opinion the most brilliant & worthy use of the 7" format is the history of the universe. Hank Rollins even agrees. I heard TW 1st & played it all the time, picked up some later lps & onyl played them a few times & figured The Fall must be better in small doses [a 1981 single Lie Dream of a Casino Soul is similarly fabulous] but eventually got around to Grotesque & realised how overwhelmingly wrong was I. Here you have wit, groove, innovation, a certain need to jump around the room. I am proud to say this was recorded the year I was born [1980]. Some of the songs are short & punkish, like Pay Yr Rates, English Scheme & In The Park ["you thought it'd be great but a good mind does not a good f**k make"], whilst the rest are a bit more trance-like w/ narratives about unsavoury characters & record industry hobnobbing & regional pride, witness the finale The North Will Rise Again [initialed for the title to the confusion & subversion of the masses]. There's even a notable surf guitar solo in the Container Drivers. It's far from average punk, w/ inventive studio multilayering that reveals itself more on repeated listenings [of which you will have many w/o a hint of boredom]. Much more could & should be said but my only complaint is that a minute has been edited off the end of Putta Block where Mark does his worst Bill Haley impression, & they even have a pic of the 7" label under the cd to acknowledge, 4 minutes where it's 3 on the cd. But what's here is all good stuff. REALLY GOOD STUFF I should say.