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**I Am Kurious Oranj - The Fall**
★★★★☆

The Fall's story reads like a decades-long fever dream punctuated by lineup changes, Mark E. Smith's caustic wit, and an uncompromising dedication to making music that sounds like no one else. When the band finally dissolved in 2018 following Smith's death, they left behind a catalog so vast and idiosyncratic that most casual listeners gave up trying to find an entry point somewhere around album fifteen. But for those brave enough to dive into their sprawling discography, "I Am Kurious Oranj" stands as one of their most accessible yet uncompromising statements—a perfect storm of theatrical ambition and post-punk fury that somehow emerged from the most unlikely of sources.

The album's genesis reads like something Smith himself might have concocted in one of his more surreal lyrical moments. In 1988, choreographer Michael Clark approached The Fall to provide music for his ballet about William of Orange, the 17th-century Dutch prince who became King of England. That Smith—a working-class Salfordian with little patience for high culture pretension—would agree to score a ballet seems absurd until you remember his perverse delight in subverting expectations. The collaboration resulted in both a theatrical performance and this studio album, which takes the historical framework and runs it through The Fall's industrial-strength post-punk filter.

Musically, "I Am Kurious Oranj" finds The Fall at their most disciplined and focused, which in their world still means controlled chaos. The rhythm section of Steve Hanley and Simon Wolstencroft provides a relentless motorik foundation that owes as much to Can and Neu! as it does to punk rock. Brix Smith's guitar work sparkles with a clarity that cuts through the mix like a rusty blade, while Craig Scanlon adds layers of texture that range from melodic to deliberately abrasive. This was The Fall firing on all cylinders, a well-oiled machine capable of both brutal efficiency and moments of unexpected beauty.

The album opens with "New Big Prinz," a seven-minute epic that serves as both mission statement and warning shot. Smith's vocals alternate between mumbled observations and barked commands while the band locks into a hypnotic groove that builds and releases tension like a master class in dynamics. It's vintage Fall—repetitive, confrontational, and utterly compelling. "Dog Is Life/Jerusalem" showcases their ability to transform familiar melodies (in this case, Blake's hymn) into something entirely alien, while "Kurious Oranj" itself is a masterpiece of controlled aggression, with Smith spitting out syllables like verbal ammunition over a backing track that sounds like machinery achieving consciousness.

But it's "Van Plague?" that might be the album's secret weapon—a relatively straightforward rocker that demonstrates how The Fall could sound almost conventional when they wanted to, before quickly reminding you that conventional was never really an option. The track bounces along with an almost poppy energy while Smith delivers one of his more coherent narratives, creating a tension between accessibility and alienation that defines much of the album's appeal.

The production, handled by the band with John Leckie, strikes the perfect balance between clarity and grit. Every instrument sits in its own space without sacrificing the claustrophobic intensity that made The Fall's best work so compelling. The sound is both bigger and more focused than much of their earlier catalog, suggesting a band confident enough in their identity to experiment with polish without losing their edge.

In the context of The Fall's mammoth discography, "I Am Kurious Oranj" occupies a unique position. It arrived during what many consider their creative peak, sandwiched between the breakthrough success of "The Frenz Experiment" and the more experimental territory they'd explore in the '90s. The album proved that The Fall could work within external constraints—the demands of a ballet commission—without compromising their vision, a lesson that would serve them well through decades of lineup changes and industry pressures.

Today, "I Am Kurious Oranj" endures as both a perfect introduction to The Fall's world and a reminder of what made them irreplaceable. It's an album that rewards both casual listening and deep analysis, revealing new layers with each encounter while never losing its initial impact. In a career defined by uncompromising artistic vision, it stands as proof that The Fall's greatest strength wasn't just their ability to confound expectations, but their capacity to exceed them.