Mark E Smith’s fiancée and last manager hits out at The Fall’s final album as “cash grab” and “ethically

The nine-track record is due for release through Cog Sinister on October 2 and features unused studio vocals recorded by Smith between 2001 and 2014, with former Fall members and longtime associates Ed Blaney and Simon “Ding” Archer adding new music to them after his death.

• READ MORE: Mark E. Smith: 1957 – 2018, the obituary.

When ‘Post Script’ was first announced in June, it was initially reported that the recordings had been part of an album The Fall were working on before Smith’s death in January 2018.

No entanto, Pamela Vander disse ao The Guardian que nenhuma das vozes de Smith no disco foi gravada depois que The Fall lançou em 2017 o álbum ‘New Facts Emerge’, que ela diz que Smith havia decidido que seria o último disco da banda.

Vander, who was in a relationship with Smith for the final three years of his life and became his carer as his health deteriorated, also questioned the decision to release the recordings under The Fall’s name.

Blaney has rejected Vander’s description of the album, insisting that it was made out of “love and respect” for Smith.

He added that while making the record, “we felt Mark’s presence”, and continued: “Words like ‘cashing in’ make me laugh. It was about love and respect for Mark: he was The Fall, and Mark’s vocals were recorded as The Fall, hence it’s being released as The Fall.

Blaney tocou com The Fall no início dos anos 2000 antes de se tornar o gerente de turnê do grupo e, posteriormente, seu gerente. Ele também colaborou com Smith no álbum de 2008 “Smith And Blaney”.

Archer played bass in the band during 2003 and 2004 and subsequently produced or engineered eight of The Fall’s final nine studio albums.

A primeira prévia de ‘Post Script’, ’30 Degrees’, foi lançada em junho. A faixa combina os vocais arquivados de Smith com sintetizadores fuzz e um groove de baixo pesado.

In 2022, five former members of The Fall formed a new band called House Of All, describing it as “A Fall Family Continuum project”. Smith’s family and estate subsequently rejected any association with the group, calling the project “extremely offensive” and saying it caused them “much sorrow, distress and discomfort”.

The Fall released 31 studio albums during Smith’s lifetime, beginning with 1979’s ‘Live At The Witch Trials’ and ending with ‘New Facts Emerge’ in 2017.

Following Smith’s death, NME described him in an obituary as having crafted “a complex literary voice for himself which became as unmistakable as his own abrasive vocals”, while recalling John Peel’s famous description of The Fall as his favourite band because “they’re always different, but always the same”.

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