Middle Class Revolt by The Fall

Middle Class Revolt, or Middle Class Revolt A/K/A The Vapourisation of Reality if you want the full mouthful, landed in 1994 as the Fall's sixteenth album, out through Permanent in the UK and Matador in the US. It brought an old face back to the drum stool: Karl Burns, who had rejoined in 1993 and appears here for the first time since This Nation's Saving Grace in 1985, alongside Simon Wolstencroft.

Mark E. Smith is, as ever, the only fixed point, barking his caustic half-spoken sermons over Craig Scanlon's scratchy guitar and the tight, circular bass lines of Steve Hanley, with Dave Bush also in the ranks. It's abrasive, repetitive and gleefully contrary. It spent a single week on the UK Albums Chart at number 48, a long way down from the top 10 debut of its predecessor, The Infotainment Scan.

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