Code: Selfish is a 1992 LP by British rock band The Fall. Their 14th full-length studio album, it entered the UK chart at number 21, although it spent only one week on the chart.

Code: Selfish
Studio album by
Released23 March 1992[1]
RecordedLate 1991
StudioAIR Studios, London and Glasgow
Genre
Length54:22
LabelFontana
Producer
The Fall chronology
Shift-Work
(1991)
Code: Selfish
(1992)
The Infotainment Scan
(1993)
Singles from Code: Selfish
  1. "Free Range"
    Released: 2 March 1992
  2. "Ed's Babe"
    Released: 22 June 1992
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
NME9/10[3]
Pitchfork7.5/10[4]
Select[5]
Uncut9/10[6]

The album is characterised by its harsher sound in relation to the previous year's Shift-Work, and is influenced by techno music (techno fan Dave Bush had been added on keyboards and computers).[7] Despite this, the album also has some notably mellow moments, with "Time Enough At Last" (named after an episode of The Twilight Zone) and "Gentlemen's Agreement" being at odds with the overall sound of the album.

Largely recorded in a converted church in Glasgow, Code: Selfish features the group's only self-penned Top 40 single, "Free Range". The album would prove to be their last for the Phonogram label, as the group were dropped following the release of the Ed's Babe EP later in 1992. Simon Ford reports in his Fall biography Hip Priest that Phonogram had to compensate the band for the early termination of their five-album deal and that these funds were used to record what became The Infotainment Scan.

The album was re-released by Voiceprint in 2002 under licence from Phonogram, and also appeared in a double-CD set coupled with an edition of Shift-Work on the same label in 2003. This edition added "Ed's Babe" and "Free Ranger" to the track listing. It was reissued again in expanded and remastered form by Universal in May 2007.

According to keyboard player Dave Bush, the song "Immortality" was partly inspired by Milan Kundera's 1990 novel of the same name [citation needed].

Track listing

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No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."The Birmingham School of Business School"Mark E. Smith, Dave Bush6:45
2."Free Range"Smith, Simon Wolstencroft3:58
3."Return"Smith, Steve Hanley4:04
4."Time Enough at Last"Smith, Craig Scanlon3:48
5."Everything Hurtz"Smith, Hanley4:07
6."Immortality"Smith, Scanlon4:30
7."Two-Face!"Smith, Scanlon6:01
8."Just Waiting"Hank Williams4:38
9."So Called Dangerous"Smith, Bush, Hanley3:46
10."Gentlemen's Agreement"Smith, Scanlon4:33
11."Married, 2 Kids"Smith, Scanlon, Hanley2:45
12."Crew Filth"Smith, Wolstencroft5:20
Total length:54:22
2002 reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
13."Ed's Babe"Smith, Scanlon3:17
14."Free Ranger"Smith, Wolstencroft4:04
Total length:61:43

2007 reissue

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Disc one
  • as per original edition
Disc two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Free Range" (single version)Smith, Wolstencroft4:21
2."Return" (slightly alternate version found on "Free Range" single)Smith, Hanley4:04
3."Dangerous" (slightly alternate version of "So-Called Dangerous", from the "Free Range" single)Smith, Hanley, Bush4:01
4."Everything Hurtz" (slightly alternate version found on "Free Range" single)Smith, Hanley4:07
5."Ed's Babe" (from the "Ed's Babe" EP)Smith, Scanlon3:17
6."Pumpkin Head Xscapes" (from the "Ed's Babe" EP)Smith, Scanlon, Hanley3:49
7."The Knight, the Devil and Death" (from the "Ed's Babe" EP)Smith, Scanlon, Wolstencroft3:23
8."Free Ranger" (remix of "Free Range", from the "Ed's Babe" EP)Smith, Wolstencroft4:04
9."Noel's Chemical Effluence" (outtake, previously released on The Twenty-Seven Points, 1995)Smith6:24
10."Legend of Xanadu" (previously released on NME compilation CD Ruby Trax, 1992)Ken Howard, Alan Blaikley3:29
11."Free Range" (BBC John Peel Session, recorded 19 January 1992)Smith, Wolstencroft4:05
12."Kimble" (BBC John Peel Session, recorded 19 January 1992; released as a single later the same year)Lee "Scratch" Perry3:55
13."Immortality" (BBC John Peel Session, recorded 19 January 1992)Smith, Scanlon4:27
14."Return" (BBC John Peel Session, recorded 19 January 1992)Smith, Hanley4:10
Total length:57:43

Personnel

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The Fall
Additional personnel

References

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  1. ^ "The Fall online - Discography". thefall.org. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  2. ^ Allmusic review
  3. ^ "NME review". Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2008.
  4. ^ Pitchfork Media review
  5. ^ "Select review". Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2008.
  6. ^ "10 Classic Fall albums". Uncut. April 2018. p. 55.
  7. ^ Fadele, Dele (14 Mar. 1992). "Tales from the Cryptographic Ocean". NME.
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