Grotesque (After the Gramme) is the third studio album by the English band the Fall. Released on 17 November 1980, it was the band's first studio album on Rough Trade.
The album reached number one on the UK Independent Chart, spending 29 weeks on the chart in total.
Background and recording
This was the first album for drummer Paul Hanley (Steve Hanley's younger brother), who joined the Fall earlier in the year, aged 15. Kay Carroll, the group's manager, played kazoo on "New Face in Hell" and added backing vocals. Grotesque was recorded at Cargo Studios in Rochdale and Street Level in London, with production by the group and Grant Showbiz, Geoff Travis and Mayo Thompson.
According to the Slates & Dates press release, this album was, at one point, to be titled After the Gramme – The Grotesque Peasants.
Content
The Fall's music at the time was described as "Mancabilly", and by Smith himself as "Country 'n' Northern". The album opens with "Pay Your Rates", the lyric described as one that "excoriates small-minded conformity". It has been described as "a paranoid tale of sinister government agencies 'disappearing' innocent amateur radio hams". The song makes reference to the band's meeting with A&M Records co-founder Herb Alpert ("big A&M Herb was there") while seeking an American record deal. Side one closes with "The Container Drivers", which Al Spicer described as "[shattering] the stereotype of the noble trucker, depicting a world of loudmouthed ignorance and bowel-rotting gluttony". was viewed by AllMusic as "Smith's own take on the long-standing "soft south/grim north" dichotomy in English society",
| rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide
| rev2score = B
| rev3 = Classic Rock
| rev3score = 8/10
| rev4 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
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| rev5 = Mojo
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| rev6 = Record Mirror
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| rev7 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide
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| rev8 = Sounds
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| rev9 = Spin Alternative Record Guide
| rev9score = 9/10
| rev10 = Uncut
| rev10score = 8/10
In contemporary reviews, Johnny Waller, reviewing Grotesque for Sounds, hailed the album as "rock n' roll with a conscience". Chris Westwood of Record Mirror viewed it as a disappointment, finding that the band's cynical outlook had become predictable.
Grotesque was included in Al Spicer's 1999 book Rock: 100 Essential CDs, in which he described it as "among the Fall's most powerful statements, and recorded by the most inventive of the band's constantly evolving line-ups". In 2020, Rolling Stone included Grotesque (After the Gramme) in its "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list, praising the band for its "ability to craft impossibly catchy songs that simultaneously sound like they're shaking apart at the seams".
Reissues
Grotesque was first reissued through Castle Music in 1993.
| writer15 = Smith
| length15 = 7:18
Personnel
;The Fall
- Mark E. Smith – vocals, tape operation, kazoo <small>(track 3)</small>, guitar
- Marc Riley – guitar, keyboards
- Craig Scanlon – guitar (credited as 'Craig Scanlan')
- Steve Hanley – bass guitar
- Paul Hanley – drums
;Additional musicians
- Kay Carroll – additional vocals
;Technical
- The Fall – production (1–10)
- Geoff Travis – production (1–10)
- Grant Showbiz – production (1–5)
- Mayo Thompson – production (1–5)
- John Brierley – engineering
- George "Porky" Peckham – mastering
- Suzanne Smith – cover artwork
Weekly charts
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|+Weekly chart performance for Grotesque
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! scope="col"| Chart (1982)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
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