The Sound (2) – All Fall Down

It is incredible the level of creativity found in this 1982 album... the more I listen to it the more I get it... It wasn't an immediate appreciation as in From the Lyons Mouth or as in Jeopardy, which both I love. All Fall Down is more experimental and creative.

As far as the copy is concerned, mine came with 13 'bumps' on B1 'Song and Dance' but after that is a clean copy. The other two releases were pristine, not this one unfortunately. I got it from Amazon Canada and actually this is a replacement as the first delivered vinyl cover was bent on the upper corners and had to return it without opening it. If I decide to return it maybe I'll get it from another seller, can't make up my mind yet.

Like "From the Lions Mouth" this is a killer sounding reissue from the analogue tapes! Warm, detailed, wide and super dynamic. And to top it all off my copy is the cleanest one of the three coloured The Sound reissues, dead quiet!

Packaging-wise this is even more basic than the others though, without a printed inner sleeve and just a generic black one instead, but at least it's polylined. In this case I don't care much about that anyway, I bought this for the sound quality and with that they did everything right.

Don't sleep on this because it isn't as acclaimed as their first two albums. This is criminally underrated anyway, much more experimental, but still as strong as those albums in my opinion.

Fantastic remaster by Nick Robbins from the master tapes. They’ve used the vinyl mastering so we get a dynamic range of 12. Best cd version by far. Examples: bass sound throughout is fantastic, acoustic guitar at start of Monument is sparkling, you can hear each note. Highly recommended.

This Is actually clear blue, if someone is into details.

Very good third album of probably one of the best Post Punk bands of the 80's ... Very good press with a lot of range and dynamics. The Sound sounds awesome ... As usual and forever !

I'll just state it right from the start - to me, one of my absolute favorite albums of all time, to the point of making me write this. Don't be fooled, this is The Sound's best album, by far.

The reviews I'm reading here at the time I'm doing so touch all the essential and right points. Bleakness was mentioned, and rightly so. In nowadays' popular culture, the 80's are one of the most portrayed decades through a rose tinted glasses type attitude. But people who lived through that decade know it had a very particular bleakness that everybody felt, which then manifested itself in the culture, especially in the UK, Europe and New York in a more vociferous way. Very few bands and albums were actually able, and willing, to face that monster in the eyes.

This album was born of an act of rebellion by the band against WEA's inner pressures for a commercially viable album, arguing that the ones before didn't capture the public in that manner. Per Mike Dudley (original quote and source contained in the album's Wikipedia page):

"We thought [the label wasn't] giving us the that we were due and that if they really wanted a commercial album, they had got to put plenty of money behind it, which with both Jeopardy and From the Lions Mouth they hadn't really done [...] So when they turned around and said, 'The solution is for you to write more commercial songs', we thought, 'Fuck you', and went ahead and produced All Fall Down."

Perhaps the band was fueled by anger, perhaps by disillusion, perhaps by something else. But whatever it was, it shows throughout the album, and it allowed them to perfectly capture the 80's bleakness (and beauty born from it). Spirit wise, to me, all of that is best contained in Graham Green's bass throughout most tracks, like Red Paint. The thumping bass, sort of angry, almost guitar like, like a constant reminder of why they're making the album. In The Hothouse is the nearest album close to that aspect.

When my father was alive he had the vinyl pressing and decided in the late 90's to digitalize it so he could have it on CD. I knew he was very technically inclined, but for an amateur like him, he did a fantastic job. Amazing sound quality. It contains the rawness of the original pressing, that bass, all of it. A simple BASF CD-R with his amazing handwriting, which I still keep and truly treasure, and prefer to any version beyond the vinyl itself.

If anyone wants to truly know, truly feel what the 80's were actually like in the UK and Europe, its bleakness, its beauty that could only be born from it, this is the album. The "album of the 80's", and also its best. As criminally underrated as the band itself.

A superb record - a few slow spots but the highlights are as good as anything recorded in the 80s. First two tracks are perfect. Sounds dramatically different from the CD and LP reissues - this vinyl is way more dynamic and intense (e.g. the buzzsaw acoustic in Monument is totally toned down on the reissues).

This is indeed an incredible record, with depth and beauty that rivals any of the records of the 80s held up as standard bearers. The fact that The Sound has flown under the radar for so long is unfathomable. "Party of the Mind" alone should be considered right up there with "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "The Cutter". Glad to see them finally getting the attention they deserved for so long.

Most people woud vote for 'From the Lion's Mouth' or 'Jeopardy' as the best Sound album but I think this is the one (and they are one of the very few bands of which I love every record), even though it is, ittedly, very bleak. I would take this over Joy Division any time. Perhaps the best album of the Eighties.