Middle Class Revolt
| Middle Class Revolt | ||||
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| Studio album by The Fall | ||||
| Released | 3 May 1994 | |||
| Recorded | 1993/4 | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, post-punk | |||
| Length | 50:08 | |||
| Label | Permanent, Matador | |||
| Producer | Rex Sergeant | |||
| The Fall chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| NME | "7/10 by their own standards, 8/10 by everyone else's" |
Middle Class Revolt is an album (the 16th) by The Fall, released in 1994 in the UK on Permanent Records and in the US on Matador Records. It spent one week on the UK album chart at number 48, a marked contrast to the top 10 debut of their preceding album The Infotainment Scan. The album's full title is Middle Class Revolt A/K/A The Vapourisation Of Reality. Drummer Karl Burns features for the first time since 1985's This Nation's Saving Grace, having rejoined the band in 1993.
The album spawned two singles, "Behind the Counter" (December 1993 - no. 75) and "15 Ways" (April 1994 - no. 65) although both were included on the album in alternate versions. A further five tracks from the album featured as b-sides across the formats of these singles, and, although most were in alternate versions, this meant that the album only contained seven songs that were new to fans upon its release, three of which were cover versions. In addition, "Hey! Student" is a reworked version of "Hey! Fascist" which The Fall used to play live in their early days (as shown by its inclusion on Live 1977).
The cover versions on the album were notably less mainstream than some of their other recent choices; "War", originally by Henry Cow and Slapp Happy, "Shut Up!", originally by The Monks (whom The Fall had already covered twice on 1990s Extricate) and a bizarre version of "Junk Man", originally by The Groundhogs - according to Daryl Easlea's sleevenote for the 2006 reissue, Smith prevailed upon the group to deliver the song from memory and, as a result, MES is backed by minimal drums, bass, kazoo and some tuneless hollering from Burns. Another track "Symbol of Mordgan" is based upon a recording of Scanlon discussing a football match by telephone on John Peel's Saturday afternoon programme.
Middle Class Revolt is, as Easlea notes, not a uniformly popular album amongst the group's fans. Nevertheless, it houses some popular tracks. Indeed, "Hey! Student" attained the number 2 position in John Peel's 1994 Festive Fifty, beaten to the top only by Inspiral Carpets' "I Want You", which featured Mark E. Smith as guest vocalist.
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