MES’s statement about this lineup of the Fall being the best he’s ever had is certainly been borne out by the fact that their most recent full-length features the same membership featured on the previous three LPs. It has been both a boon to the singer’s lyrical efforts and way for him (as heard on Ersatz GB) to get a little lazy. This record doesn’t veer too hard in one direction more than the other, but from song to song leans lightly to one side. He can get fierce (check out the snappy “No Respects Rev.,” a track apparently written for hopeful inclusion on the Twilight soundtrack, or his jeremiad against modern air travel, “Jetplane,” that appears to call out the band Elbow) just as often as he can get slobbering and lost (“Noise,” “Sir William Wray”). And let’s not even mention the weird screeching he does on “Victrola Time.”

The music alone — the potent mixture of garage-rock sneering and Krautrock sleekness — is enough to support the feeling that the next few years of the Fall could be great ones (the most recent EP and live album also aids in this feeling). But it’s also good to hear that MES’s wordsmithery is still on point even if his enunciation leaves a lot to be desired. His Victorian-style ghost story meant for Twilight has some genuinely creepy imagery. His anti-drug messages (in both “Victrola Time and “Pre-MDMA Years”) are as witty and wise as ever. Even his more freeform beat poetry (“Kinder Of Spine,” “Jam Song”) kick up some remarkable lines (“When the LP came on/It erased the brain of the man we held dear”) and uses of meter (“Happy glued to some plant red/Green of the green of the bed of the breadcrumb”).