The move to the still-fledgling indie label Rough Trade did wonders for the Fall. And it came at just the right time as the band was hitting their creative stride as songwriters and players. They had already proven their mettle with a pair of incredible singles (“How I Wrote ‘Elastic Man'” and “Totally Wired”) and some of that inspiration carried over into these sessions. Some of it is still very tattered around the edges, but the majority of it finds that unique static charge that made their ’80s work so compelling.

For as much as MES has been painted (by himself and others) as the puppetmaster of his band, he’s been very much reliant on the efforts of others to bring out his and the Fall’s best. Credit then for this creative advance should be doled out to both the album’s producers (Grant Showbiz, Red Krayola leader Mayo Thompson and Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis) and bandmates Craig Scanlon and Marc Riley. Together they all helped mold some of MES’s more fevered visions, like “C’n’C-S Mithering,” his sprawling screed at the vapidity of the music industry, and “The N.W.R.A.,” a literary vision of political upheaval in Northern England. And when the songs are tightly wound (the short jabs of “English Scheme” and “Pay Your Rates”), they keep everything on track and on time and (at long last) in tune.