“Bonkers In Phoenix” by The Fall

"Bonkers In Phoenix" turns up on Cerebral Caustic, the Fall's 1995 album on Permanent Records, and it's one of the tracks that announce Brix Smith's return: she wrote the music with Mark E. Smith, who supplied the words. Brix had quit the English post-punk outfit in 1989 and rejoined for live shows in 1994, and she and her ex-husband worked out a long-distance deal, with her staying in Los Angeles and flying to the UK whenever the band needed her on stage or in the studio.

She made her mark straight away, co-writing five of the album's 12 tracks, this one among them. The timing wasn't kind, though: the record sold less than its recent predecessors, closing one of the group's better runs, and the Fall, normally a restless touring machine, played just 16 shows that year.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.