Perverted by Language by The Fall

Perverted by Language, the Fall's sixth studio album, came out on Rough Trade in December 1983, and it's the Prestwich awkward squad at full, glorious tilt. Mark E. Smith is out front as ever, barking and half-speaking his caustic lines over a band that had grown fearsome: Craig Scanlon on guitar, Steve Hanley's bass going round and round in those melodic loops, and two drummers in the lineup, Paul Hanley and Karl Burns. Brix Smith, who arrived in 1983, was now in the ranks too.

The grind is the point: repetitive, abrasive guitars that dig in and refuse to budge, rhythms wound tight as a spring, and "Eat Y'Self Fitter" chugging along as if it could go on forever. It topped the UK Independent Chart, their first album to manage that since Grotesque (After the Gramme) in 1980, and it hung around that chart for fourteen weeks.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.