"Falling and Laughing" is the debut single by Scottish

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...

band

Orange Juice Orange juice is a liquid extract of the orange tree fruit, produced by squeezing or reaming oranges. It comes in several different varieties, including blood orange, navel oranges, valencia orange, clementine, and tangerine. As well as vari ...

. It was the first single released by the independent rock label

Postcard Records Postcard Records is a British, Glasgow-based, independent record label founded by Alan Horne in 1979, as a vehicle for releases by Orange Juice and Josef K. The label's motto was "The Sound of Young Scotland", a parody/tribute to the Motown mot ...

. "Falling and Laughing" marked a new shift of the post-punk sound in general by using themes that were not normally used in the genre, such as love and innocence. It also had a brighter sound, contrasting with the music that their contemporaries, (including

Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after atte ...

and Echo & the Bunnymen), were making at the time, while still maintaining its roots in the experimentalism of the genre. A re-recording of the song appears on the band's 1982 debut album '' You Can't Hide Your Love Forever''. The first 963 copies came with a free

flexi-disc The flexi disc (also known as a phonosheet, Sonosheet or Soundsheet, a trademark) is a phonograph record made of a thin, flexible vinyl sheet with a molded-in spiral stylus groove, and is designed to be playable on a normal phonograph turntabl ...

, containing an early version of Felicity: a song written by James Kirk and later covered by

the Wedding Present The Wedding Present are an English indie rock group originally formed in 1985 in Leeds, England, from the ashes of The Lost Pandas. The band's music has evolved from fast-paced indie rock in the vein of their most obvious influences The Fall, ...

Track listing

# "Falling and Laughing" - (4:00) # "Moscow" - (2:01) # "Moscow Olympics" - (2:07)

References

1980 debut singles Orange Juice (band) songs Songs written by Edwyn Collins 1980 songs {{1980s-single-stub