Cerebral Caustic by The Fall

Cerebral Caustic, the Fall's seventeenth studio album, came out on Permanent Records in 1995 with Mike Bennett producing, and Mark E. Smith is as prickly as ever, barking and half-speaking his way over the band's grinding, repetitive churn. Steve Hanley's bass still circles like a shark, Simon Wolstencroft keeps the drums wound tight, and Craig Scanlon's guitar scrapes at the edges in what turned out to be one of his last outings with the group, with Dave Bush also in the lineup.

"Feeling Numb", "Don't Call Me Darling", "Bonkers in Phoenix" and "The Joke" give it a scrappy, lurching energy. It spent a single week on the UK album chart at number 67, 19 places below Middle Class Revolt, and in hindsight it closed one of the Fall's comparatively successful stretches.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.