It was all change when The Fall signed to Fontana. Guitarist Martin Bramah, who had founded the group with Smith, returned, replacing Smith’s ex-wife Brix, who had been in the group since 1983. There were few cries of sell-out, however, when The Fall signed to a major; it was just part of an evolutionary process. The three Fontana albums, Extricate, Shift- Work and Code: Selfsh were stunningly consistent.With Martin Bramah and keyboard player Marcia Schofeld dismissed from the band, The Fall worked as a four- piece (Craig Scanlon, guitar; Steve Hanley, bass; Simon ‘Funky Si’ Wolstencroft on drums) for the frst time in the group’s career.

Shift-Work from April 1991 is another commercial Fall high- water mark; it contains Idiot Joy Showland, Smith’s rant against bandwagon- jumping Madchester bands (“The shapeless kecks fapping up a storm, look at what they are: a pack of worms.”), the one- time album title track, The War Against Intelligence, and the bucolic Edinburgh Man, a love letter to Mark E. Smith’s then adopted home city.

This re-issue faithfully replicates the original 1991 Fontana Records UK release and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.