The revolving door through which members of the Fall walk through post-1999 starts its steady spin here. Everyone involved with Unutterable is gone, replaced by a bunch of young guns. “Not like the old one/We are The New Fall,” they sing on opening track, “Jim’s ‘The Fall'” (a reference to new bassist Jim Watts, who wrote the music for that tune). And just like The Marshall Suite from a couple of years prior, the band didn’t have a great deal of time to gel as a unit. This batch do better than most, however, as it’s pretty hard to screw up garage-rock grooves if you have even a little bit of facility with your instruments.

This disc at least has a little bit of a fire in its belly. MES cranks up the crankiness to express some disgust at the spawn of his school chums, to warn anyone around him to steer clear (“Have I got ‘I need advice’ written on my forehead?” he sings in “The Acute”), and to toss a couple of fingers up in the face of a “Hollow Mind.” He’s having some fun with these tunes, perhaps thanks to the kick of energy brought out by a new batch of bandmates. He even pokes fun at the reputation he’s earned, repeating “Smith is a bastardo” over a bumpy rhythm track written by guitarist Ed Blaney and drummer Spencer Birtwhistle. He’s not only aware of how he’s perceived by the public, he owns up to it.