The Fall's second album was also one of the hardest to find in later years, getting only sporadic represses and reissues. Though some opinions would have it that there was a good reason for this -- namely, that it was something of a dead end sonically -- it's not as bad as all that. It's true that more than a few tracks come across as
Fall-by-numbers (even then, already better than plenty of other bands), but there are some thorough standouts regardless. There's also another key reason to rate
Dragnet -- it's the debut album appearance of
Craig Scanlon, who picked up on the off-kilter
rockabilly-meets-
art rock sensibilities of the initial lineup and translated it into amazing guitar work. No less important is the appearance of
Steve Hanley, who would soon take over fully on bass from
Marc Riley, who in turn moved to guitar, forming one heck of a partnership with
Scanlon that would last until
Riley jumped ship to form
the Creepers. Generally the songs which work the best on
Dragnet throw in some amusingly odd curves while still hanging together musically. The full winner is unquestionably
"Spectre vs. Rector," an amazing combination of clear lead vocals and buried, heavily echoed music and further rants, before fully exploding halfway through while the rhythm obsessively grinds away. Another odd and wonderful cut is
"Muzorewi's Daughter," which starts out sounding like stereotypical Hollywood music for Native American tribes before shifting between that and quicker choruses.
"Dice Man," with its
rave-up melody and slower vocal- and guitar-only chorus, not to mention the weird muttering elsewhere in the mix, says it all in under two minutes and has fun while doing it. Through it all,
Smith rants and raves supreme, spinning out putdowns, cracked vocals, and total bile with all the thrill and energy one could want from a good performer. [
Cherry Red reissued the album in 2019 in a small box set edition. Along with a remastered original album, both the "Rowche Rumble" and Fiery Jack" singles and rehearsal takes of "In My Area" and "Rowche Rumble" are included on the first disc. The second and third discs are made up of complete live sets from 1979. The first was recorded in Retford, the other in Los Angeles; both of them are shoddily recorded and barely listenable. Seems about right for
the Fall of this era -
Cherry Red got it right!] ~ Ned Raggett
