The band had had a bit of a reshuffle prior to making this album. One of their two drummers having left, and their stand-in bass-player moving onto keys and guitars once their original bassist returned from parental leave.
According to the book, the Fall teamed up with producer John Leckie who gave the band's new songs a glossy, professional sheen... which singer Mark E Smith hated. He insisted that the producer instead work with the shabby audio cassette version of the recordings that he had. One song even ended up with some sounds inadvertently recorded over the music by Smith when he was at home, leading to an impromptu sound collage that... actually kind of works.
The album is somehow noisy, uncompromising, yet quite accessible and catchy. I guess that must be 'the way of the Fall'.
