The Post Nearly Man (140g Clear Vinyl)

Often referred to as the Fall leader's first spoken word album, Post Nearly Man goes well past that with a messy bunch of sound collages and bite-size chunks of Fall music. The album comes off like the tape experiments and prose that appeared on Fall B-sides on and off since 1984 or so with more purpose and room to roam. There's a wealth of overlapping voices, Dictaphone recordings, and oddball tape edits with an adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story amongst it all. Smith sounds coherent and inspired but there's a lot less of his voice than expected, with quite a bit of the disc given up to guest speakers. Smith has referred to it as a "cursed" album, a record company idea and recorded in part at Dead or Alive and Kylie Minogue producer Pete Waterman's studio where the engineers never "got it." It's clumsy, unnecessary, and indulgent, but interesting and altogether listenable. ~ David Jeffries