Oliver!: The Fall - So-Called Dangerous (7 March 1992)

I'm probably not the right person to ask for a considered opinion on this, but I have to say I'm rather enjoying this indie-dance crossover version of The Fall that cropped up on some of the tunes aired, so far by Peel, from Code: Selfish.  As this rate, we'll be awash with selections by the time they start losing fans, band members and their sanity during the making of Levitate.

There's a definite Roses/Happy Mondays-ish vibe to the music on So-Called Dangerous, though the wacka-wacka bursts of guitar put John Squire back on his pedestal.  And as always, there's Mark E.Smith, wandering through the musical tapestries like a bored tourist, determined not to be elated by the new sounds around him.  He keeps clarity of thought in a world which gets progressively more absurd - and in 1992 some of the extreme sports dismissed by Smith in the opening lines were being sold as genuine cures for stress and ennui.  Laughable as that now sounds.  I blame Point Break.  After these initial funny lines, Smith loses me with reflections on "lighter kleptomaniacs" and we get repeated tropes (another variant on "The meek shall inherit the...") but he rounds things off in inimitable style by reflecting on a classic oxymoron from the comforts of a place he knows better than most - the bar.

Video courtesy of Paul Connelly.