Catalyst: Brix Smith
December 14th 2008 14:56
As Mark E.'s wife and muse, Brix was the catalyst for the Fall's best albums; peaking with the three-album period from 1984-1986, Brix's rockabilly riffs and punkish-pop vocals modernized the Fall. The urgency was palpable. The band now looked and sounded the best they ever had.
On 1984's The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall, Brix Smith's contributions were immediate. Her vocals offset and deepened songs like "Elves," and "2 x 4," and Mark E. sounded surprised and energized by the sexual interplay. Brix's guitar playing is raw and inspired on these records. The juxtaposing of Mark E.'s sarcastic edge with Brix's coy pop twists inhabits the Fall's best LP, 1985's This Nation's Saving Grace (see earlier post review).
By Bend Sinister (1986), the Smith duo had reached maximum working efficiency, and the songs on that album include some of Brix's best work. "DKTR Fausus" is particularly luminescent: Brix howls the names of random fruits and sounds both beguilingly sweet and obnoxious at the same time.
As per usual for Mark E. Smith, he drove away a good band member (and wife) with his bizarre behavior. But the Brix era of the Fall produced no less than three of the best albums of the 1980s, and cemented the band's status as titans of the post punk era. Seek the downloads out (they're on emusic, and damn cheap, too) and prepare to be amazed.
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