The Fall

Mark E. Smith is a ranter, but rarely a crowd-pleaser; he's also a Twilight Zone fanatic, a William Blake obsessive, and something of a thug, not to mention, just maybe, Britpunk's poet laureate and philosopher king. He's also the sole constant member of the Fall, one of the most indestructible musical ideas to emerge from British punk.

Using half-sung, half-snarled, sometimes hysterically funny,...