Dragnet album cover
Dragnet

The Fall

1979
Step-Forward Records

Half the band falls away and we get the classic lineup on bass and guitar: Steve Hanley and Craig Scanlon, respectively. Mike Leigh is no Karl Burns, and this is a pretty delicate album compared to the first. “Muzorewi’s Daughter” and “Spector vs. Rector” is where the new terror begins—gone are peppy 60s beats. Now we are in the murk, leaping from style to style, none of them even remotely well-played. It’s honestly a little bit hard to believe this was made in a  studio, as it sounds like the band is playing on the loading dock and someone has lowered down a microphone from three floors up. A big sandwich of old blankets and tin foil, set on fire and thrown into the courtyard.

Sasha Frere-Jones

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