100 Greatest Songs of the 80’s #97 The Fall – Cruiser’s Creek

Released : 1985

There’s no greater poisoned chalice than trying to wade through the Fall’s Brix-inspired Imperial phase and choosing just one song, then compounding the error by not immediately placing it at #1 in any chart.

But at the risk of pitchforks and burning torches, Cruiser’s Creek seems like an obvious pick: on it the band’s classic eighties line up are toying with melody, but that ferocious percussive undercurrent is still amphetamine turbocharged, whilst Smith mutters disconsolately at some Prestwich moon and – as with all their best work – everything has a heightened sense of grimy cabaret.

A thousand bald men, all named Dave, will be fuming.  But Cruiser’s Creek it is.