The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country on the Click)

The album was recorded at Lisa Stansfield's Gracieland Studios in Rochdale between December 2002 and January 2003 with producer Grant Showbiz.[1]

The subtitle is explained by the fact that the tracks were originally scheduled for release in April 2003 under the title Country on the Click.[2] Promotional copies were sent out and three of the new songs were previewed in the band's 23rd Peel Session, recorded on 19 February and broadcast on 13 March 2003. Smith was unhappy with the mix and decided it needed further work, stating in November 2003:

"The frustration is when people embellish what you're doing. I thought this LP was perfect round about March. But then you trust people—them who shall remain nameless—to go away and mix it and it comes back sounding like Dr. Who meets Posh Spice. You have to go back in and strip it down to what it basically was."[2]

The early mix appeared on the internet, prompting the change of name when it was finally released, to differentiate it from the mix he was unhappy with. However, the original title still appears on the CD spine.

The album features the song "Theme from Sparta F.C.", which, from 2005, was used for several years as the theme music to the Final Score section of BBC television's Saturday afternoon sports coverage. In 2006, Smith was also invited to read out the classified football results on the BBCi interactive service "Score"; this performance was in turn released by the Sonic Arts Network on their Stewart Lee-compiled album The Topography of Chance. A version of the track was released as a single in the UK on 10 July 2004, charting at 66 in the UK Singles Chart;[3] This version ("Theme from Sparta F.C. #2") also appears on the US versions of the album. Yet another version appeared on Interim.

A cover version of Lee Hazlewood's "Houston" is included on the album (as "Loop 41 'Houston").[4]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	85/100[5]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
Alternative Press	4/5[7]
Blender	[8]
The Guardian	[9]
Mojo	[10]
Pitchfork	7.9/10[11]
Q	[12]
Spin	A−[13]
The Sunday Times	3/3[14]
Uncut	[4]

The Real New Fall LP was positively received, receiving an 85/100 score at Metacritic.com.[5]

Alex Linhardt of Pitchfork called it "as valuable an album as anything The Fall ever released in the 1990s" and stated that "Smith's lyrics are at a near career-best of insolence and nonsense."[11] AllMusic's David Jeffries wrote that the album "gives the faithful another reason to believe".[6] Helen Pidd, reviewing the album for The Guardian, viewed Smith as being "on magnificently mad form".[9] Andres Lokko, for Expressen, was also positive about the album, writing that Smith "grinds and spits on everything that moves. Sometimes it's completely incomprehensible, sometimes insanely entertaining".[15] Uncut called it "Great by Smith’s standards. Practically genius by everybody else’s."[4] Spin praised it as "an atavistic orgy of recycled riffs and lifelong obsessions".[13] Mojo viewed it as "as good as anything in this group's monstrous catalogue".[10] PopMatters called it "their best record in a decade".[16]

• The Fall:
  • Mark E. Smith – lead vocals
  • Ben Pritchard – lead guitar, backing vocals
  • Jim Watts – bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, computer, backing vocals
  • Dave Milner – drums, backing vocals; lead vocals on "Portugal"
  • Elena Poulou – keyboards, backing vocals
  • Simon "Ding" Archer – bass guitar on "Green Eyed Loco Man", "Sparta 2#", "Mad Mock Goth" and "Portugal"; backing vocals on "Portugal"
• S. Beswick – keyboards on "Recovery Kit"
• Ed Blaney – backing vocals

• Lyrics