(We Wish You) A Protein Christmas

This is not a Christmas record for the hearth: it is a Christmas record for the back alley of a Manchester pub. The Fall take the tropes of the holiday season, bells, well-wishes, and communal singing, and put them through a meat grinder of repetitive basslines and lo-fi production. It feels like a prank played by someone who finds the sentimentality of December 25th physically repulsive. The music is driven by a motorik energy that refuses to settle into a comfortable groove, mirroring the agitated, slurred delivery of Mark E. Smith as he barks about protein and protection. It is an essential acquisition for those who find the standard holiday canon suffocating. This EP offers a bracing, vinegar-soaked alternative to the sugar-coated pop usually heard this time of year. It is messy, confrontational, and strangely hilarious, capturing the band in a period of high-energy creative friction. Owning this is a statement of intent: a refusal to participate in the forced joy of the season without a healthy dose of post-punk skepticism.