This Nation's Saving Grace is the eighth studio album by the English post-punk band the Fall, released in 1985 by Beggars Banquet.
In contrast to the band's earlier more abrasive albums, Saving Grace is noted for its pop sensibilities and guitar hooks, and John Leckie's accessible production. Saving Grace was recorded in London between June and July 1985, and is the second of the three consecutive Fall albums produced by Leckie. The album was accompanied by the singles "Couldn't Get Ahead" and "Cruiser's Creek", and tours of Europe and America.
Guitarist Brix Smith and bassist Steve Hanley consider Saving Grace to be one of the band's best albums, an opinion widely shared by critics. According to The Guardian, it shows the band "operating just on the edge of the mainstream and at the peak of their accessibility and yet strangeness".Simpson, Dave. "The Fall: This Nation's Saving Grace Omnibus Edition – review". The Guardian, 15 December 2011. Retrieved 24 April 2022 In 2002, Pitchfork placed it as the 13th best album of the 1980s.
Background and line-up
The Fall's line-up had been stable for a number of years until November 1984, when, during a promotional tour for their preceding album "The Wonderful and Frightening World of...", long-time members, brothers Paul Hanley (drums) and Steve Hanley (bass) both quit. Their departures were triggered by an incident on the first of that month when the band's equipment was stolen from a van left parked after a gig in Cardiff's New Ocean Hotel. Although replacement equipment was arranged, Smith blamed the musicians for the loss. The following night, while hitting their tour-bus headrests with a stick, they shouted: "Who the fuck would be stupid enough to leave a fucking van outside a hotel with all the fucking gear in it." After this, both brothers decided to leave the band.Pringle (2022), p. 162 Paul Hanley's departure became permanent, leaving Karl Burns the band's sole drummer, while Steve Hanley was eventually persuaded by Smith to come back after taking paternity leave for several months.Ford (2002), p. 142 According to Brix, the bassist's exit left Smith "chastened...for probably the only time I have ever seen".
Hanley was replaced as bassist by Simon Rogers, a classically-trained musician whom Smith knew from an earlier collaboration with the dancer-choreographer Michael Clark.Ford (2002), pp. 142–143 The self-taught Hanley has since admitted to being disillusioned when replaced by a musician of Rogers’ caliber and wide accomplishments. After Hanley's return in the midst of recording sessions for the new album, Rogers remained in the band but switched to guitar and keyboards.Aston, Martin. "The Fall This Nation's Saving Grace Review". BBC, 2014. Retrieved 24 April 2022 Smith marked Hanley's rejoining the band with the words "S Hanley! He's Back" etched into the run-out groove on Side 1.
The Fall recorded their eighth Peel session on 14 May 1985. The recordings contain early versions of three songs from Saving Grace ("Couldn't Get Ahead", "Spoilt Victorian Child" and "Gut of the Quantifier") as well as a version of "Cruiser's Creek".Pringle (2022), p. 163 Their ninth Peel session, recorded on 29 September, includes recordings of "L.A." and "What You Need" that writer Steve Pringle describes as "brighter and sharper" than the album versions.Pringle (2022), p. 164
Recording The album was recorded between June and July 1985 at the London studios the Music Works and the Workhouse on Old Kent Road.Irvin (2007), p. 495Pringle (2022), p. 160 John Leckie had produced the band's 1984 album The Wonderful and Frightening World Of... and had built a strong working relationship with Smith. Leckie's approach to the project was to both retain the Fall's rough edges and solid rhythm section, while emphasising Brix's more pop-oriented guitar parts. His production created a heavier wall of sound than their earlier releases, and Smith praised his ability to bring forward the drum and bass parts. Smith later said that what he and Leckie were trying to achieve was a "well-produced bedroom sound".Ford (2002), p. 147
Music and lyrics Steve Hanley had often been the group's main riff writer on earlier albums, but due to his absence in the lead up to the album, Brix and rhythm guitarist Craig Scanlon wrote most of the song's foundation riffs. Hanley later said that on earlier recordings the whole group had contributed music, but for This Nation's most of the work was done by Brix and Scanlon, in a 60/40 ratio by his estimation. As Brix had begun her career as a bass player, most of her musical ideas were simple one-string riffs played lead guitar but closely resembling bass lines. Although she had been in awe of his playing when she had joined the band in 1983, her attitude towards him was different on his return, when she told Hanley "I'll show you the bass line on my guitar and you Steve Hanley it up."Hanley (2014), p. 250
Smith's lyrics are typically caustic throughout; the music critic John Mulvey wrote that at times the "vile is positively phantasmagoric".
Side one The album opens with "Mansion", one of the Fall's few instrumentals, which the band often opened their live sets with.Middles, Mick. "The Fall: This Nation's Saving Grace Omnibus Edition – review". The Quietus, 26 January 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2022 It is built around a guitar riff from Brix that evokes early horror and sci-fi film music and is clearly influenced by The Deviants' 1969 song "Billy the Monster".Pringle (2022), p. 166Ford (2002), p. 146 The following track "Bombast" is dominated by Hanley's bass. Smith's vocals promise to "bring wrath" to "bastard idiots" (including Lloyd Cole, whom Smith described in the September Peel session version of "Crusier's Creek" as having a "brain and face...made out of cowpat. We all know that)", and are at times sung through a megaphone.
"What You Need" is built around Scanlon's circular guitar riff. The line "slippery shoes for your horrible feet" and song title are taken from an episode of The Twilight Zone. "Spoilt Victorian Child" incorporates unused lyrics intended for the Fall's 1979 debut album Live at the Witch Trials, but had been held back until the band found suitable "daft English music". The jerky and stuttering guitar riff written by Rogers is in 6/4 time, a signature Brix initially found difficult to master. Smith's lyrics contain a number of Victorian era reference points, including pop-up books, aqueducts, poxes and the Cottingley Fairies.Pringle (2022), p. 172
The 1985 cassette version contains the bonus track "Vixen", a melodic surf music song written and sung by Brix, which Pringle describes as "rather slight" but which was well regarded by fans. It was never played live.Pringle (2022), p. 165
Side one ends with Brix's "L.A.", written while the Smiths spent an extended stay in the city. Mark had a poor impression of the city and said that he "Hated it...Horrible town. If you like a beer, you are regarded as a tramp." The track was described in 2011 as an "electro-goth groove" by critic Martin Aston. It contains prominent keyboards by Simon Rogers. While the lead vocals are sung by Brix, Smith added backings which he said reflect his impression of the city as "more haunted than any old place". Dave Haslam ranked it as "the sexiest song of 1985" in City Life, an assessment Smith disagreed with yet claimed to understand; he credited its sex appeal to Brix's contribution and noted how the song was popular among women—"Except," he clarified, "that the Fall are probably the most unpopular group among women ever. We've never had a good review from a woman journalist in the whole world."
Side two Side two opens with "Gut of the Quantifier", the central bassline of which is reminiscent of the Doors's The Changeling.Pringle (2022), p. 169 "My New House" details the Smiths' purchase of a semi-detached in Sedgley Park, Prestwich, close to Mark's childhood home where his parents still lived. A number of visitors remarked how unusual the house was, in particular the blue/grey colour scheme used in each room. Although credited to Mark Smith alone, the track originated from a riff by guitarist Scanlon.Pringle (2003), p. 170 The lyrics are humorous and sardonic with lines such as "no rabbit hutch about it, I bought it off the Baptists, I get the bills, and I get miffed".Start Smith (2017), 1985−1986 Although a fan favourite, and described by the Daily News David Hinkley as "near-hypnotic", it was dropped from their live set after 1986.
"Paint Work" is often described as the album's high point.Berman, Stuart. "Hey, Student! It’s a Beginner’s Guide to the Fall ". Vulture, 3 January 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2025 It features a semi-acoustic tape collage, stream of consciousness lyrics, Karl Burns' cymbal crashes and "meandering" lead guitar line provided by Scanlon.Pilley, Max. "The Fangasm: The Fall ". Drowned in Sound, 26 January 2018. Retrieved 29 April 2022 Credited to Smith, Scanlon and Rogers, it blends studio recordings with sections recorded on a four track in Rogers' flat and audio from Smith's dictaphone. During the mixing, Smith took the master tape home and accidentally erased part of the track with a section from an Open University documentary lecture on "red giants stars". The sudden jump between lo-fi home taped and studio recordings fitted the mood of the track, and he and Leckie decided to include on the finished version. The lyrics are mostly a series of "enigmatic" and often disconnected lines and phrases, with the central hook "Hey Mark! You're spoiling all the paintwork" based on a complaint made by a decorator just after the Smiths had moved into the "new house" detailed in the preceding track. The track was described in 2019 as "absolutely sublime" by Vulture,Dora John. "Messing Up The Paintwork: This Nation’s Saving Grace Revisited". The Quietus, 24 January 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2022 as "mildly psychedelic" in 2011 by critic Mick Middles, and as "a thing of true wonder" by writer Steve Pringle in 2022.
The drum heavy "I Am Damo Suzuki" is a tribute to the Japanese expat vocalist Damo Suzuki of the Krautrock group Can,Johnson, Craig. "Damo Suzuki : HollyAris : I Am Damo Suzuki ". Spiked, 1 February 2005. Retrieved 1 May 2022 who Smith has often described as an early and major influence.Hanley (2014), p. 251 The lyrics describe and evoke Suzuki's stage presence and singing style and are accompanied by Brix's descending chords and Burns' metronomic drums. The music is heavily influenced by the 1971 Can song "Oh Yeah", but also contains elements of other Can tracks such as "Bel Air" (1973), "Gomorrah" (1974) and "Midnight Men" (1977). This is evident especially in the descending chords, which are similar to the earlier Fall track "Elves" (also written by Brix, and based on the Stooges "I Wanna Be Your Dog". "I Am Damo Suzuki" was described in 2022 as a "hypnotic art-rock anthem befitting of [Can's] name",Terich, Jeff."Beginner's Guide: The Best The Fall albums to start with ". Treble Magazine, 23 March 2022. Retrieved 1 May 2022 while in 2019 Suzuki biographer Paul Woods wrote that "MES took the 'Oh Yeah' riff and overrode it with a speed-freak surrealist tribute to Can and Damo himself while throwing in an oblique reference to Fritz Leiber, one of a number of supernatural horror authors who also obsessed him."Suzuki; Woods (2019), pp. 155–156
The word "Yarbles" in the title of "To NK Roachment: Yarbles" is borrowed from the novel A Clockwork Orange as Nadsat for testicles. The track is a reprise of "Mansion", but according to Pringle, it has a "softer and gentler tone." Both the vocal melody and lyrics "Every day you have to die some / Every day you have to cry some / All the good times are past and gone" are based on the 1963 Arthur Alexander song "Every Day I Have To Cry".
1988 bonus tracks