Imperial Wax Solvent
| Imperial Wax Solvent | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 28 April 2008 (UK) | |||
| Recorded |
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| Genre | Alternative rock | |||
| Length | 47:10 | |||
| Label | Sanctuary | |||
| Producer |
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| The Fall chronology | ||||
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| Aggregate scores | |
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| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 81/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Drowned in Sound | 8/10 |
| The Guardian | |
| The Independent | |
| Mojo | |
| Pitchfork | 7.5/10 |
| Q | |
| Record Collector | |
| Uncut | |
Imperial Wax Solvent is a studio album by the Fall – the band's 26th – released in the UK on 28 April 2008.
The album featured a new British-based lineup after the departures of the American musicians who had been recruited to salvage a 2006 tour of the US and subsequently appeared on 2007's Reformation Post TLC. Frontman Mark E. Smith, keyboardist Elena Poulou and bassist Dave Spurr remain from the previous incarnation. They were joined on Imperial by guitarist Pete Greenway (a guest guitarist on the previous album) and drummer Keiron Melling. Spurr, Greenway and Melling would prove to be the band's most stable lineup, enduring for six studio albums until Smith's death in 2018.
It was the first Fall album since 2001's Are You Are Missing Winner to have been turned around in a year. An album a year was always the norm for the group in the past but this practice slipped in the period 2001–2007 (2006 was the first year since the group's inception that saw the emergence of no new material at all, with a cover of the Monks' "Higgledy Piggledy" from the tribute album Silver Monk Time being the only recorded appearance).
Imperial Wax Solvent was also the first studio album since Are You Are Missing Winner to make prominent use of the low-fi production techniques which were previously one of the Fall's hallmarks: the Groundhogs cover "Strangetown" has noticeable skips, and certain tracks on the album are presented in mono.