The Wonderful and Frightening World Of...
| The Wonderful and Frightening World Of... | ||||
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| Studio album by The Fall | ||||
| Released | 8 October 1984 | |||
| Genre | Post-punk | |||
| Length | 40:09 | |||
| Label | Beggars Banquet | |||
| Producer | John Leckie | |||
| The Fall chronology | ||||
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The Wonderful and Frightening World Of... is the seventh album by the Fall, released in October 1984. It was the band's first album with the successful Beggars Banquet label. Brix Smith co-wrote around half of the tracks. Paul Hanley left the band immediately after the accompanying UK tour, ending the group's distinctive "twin drummers" period.
The album was produced by John Leckie.
Three older, previously abandoned songs were revisited during these sessions. "Oh! Brother" and "Copped It" dated back to the group's earliest incarnation (they can be heard on Live 1977 issued by Voiceprint Records in 2000), and "Draygo's Guilt" was being performed live in 1981 (it can be heard in the Live in Leeds section of the Perverted by Language Bis DVD, issued by Cherry Red in 2003).
The album's cover artwork (like that of its predecessor Perverted by Language) was painted by Danish-born artist Claus Castenskiold.
Ned Raggett, in a retrospective Allmusic review, feels that the album is not aimed at the commercial market, describing Mark E. Smith's vocals in "Elves" as "audible, tape-distorting spit", Craig Scanlon's guitar work in "Lay of the Land" as "feedback ... over the clattering din" and Smith's lyrics in places as "coruscating and side-splittingly hilarious" and "portray[ing] a Disneyland scenario in hell"; overall his view is that it is a "smart, varied album".
Ryan Schreiber in a Pitchfork review described it as one the highlights of The Fall's career full of "artsy and other-worldly" songs ranging from "bouncy and insane ... Sex Pistols- meets- Plastic Bertrand new-waviness" to "refreshing pop rock".
The album reached #62 in the UK charts in September 1984.
The album was belatedly issued on CD in 1988. The track listing duplicated the content and running order of the cassette edition almost exactly, substituting the extended "C.R.E.E.P." for the 7" version, although it added a brief spoken introduction by Brix Smith unheard elsewhere. (The running time for this version of "C.R.E.E.P." is 3:08; all other running times listed above for the cassette apply to the CD version.) The CD was not, however, given the cassette's extended title.
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