Overlooked Classics: The Fall- Dragnet (1979)

The Fall were starting to implode. Martin and Karl were out, replaced by the Scanlon brothers, Craig and Steve, pals of Marc Riley. It’s this line-up that’s the secret to their brilliant, often overlooked second album, Dragnet.

Dragnet is excellent, a brooding, murky record, albeit with MES’ typically esoteric lyricism. He had already proved what a clever bastard he was with Witch Trials, but tracks like ‘Dice Man’ referenced Luke Reinhardt’s amazing book, and ‘Spectre Vs Rector’ and ‘Your Heart Out’ saw his poetry and pop culture references becoming more vivid, sharp and intense.

It’s also notable for being the first album that really made John Peel sit up and take notice. In the fantastic, funny and insightful BBC 4 MES documentary, The Wonderful And Frightening World of Mark E Smith, Peel said it was around 1979 that he felt that they “really had something” .The first album had been okay, but something here resonated, and stuck for life. He was hooked.

Footage of Michael Clark and company (above) dancing to this murky era of The Fall certainly doesn’t hurt either. Watching this beautiful, high -kicking genius move to The Fall with wit, invention and grace really cemented something in my mind. It was an epiphany, beauty and grit co-existing together. But that was a little bit later on…