The album reached number 79 in the official UK album chart.[2]
The album was issued on compact disc through One Little Indian in 1989. It contained all the tracks from the Neu Smell EP as a bonus, though in a different order than the one in which they appear on the EP and mislabelled. The album was repressed on vinyl through Let Them Eat Vinyl in 2008, and a deluxe two-disc LP and three-disc CD editions were issued in 2013 through One Little Indian, containing demos and live recordings.[3]
"I have a hard time finding fault with this album. Once again, if you don’t like your punk political, steer clear, because FLUX is dynamite. The whole LP is a marvelously orchestrated opera of poetic condemnations of our nuclear world that builds up to a climactic musical explosion. The production is superb, and a booklet is included. My copy’s grooves are already worn down.[4]
The 1992 book The Guinness Who's Who of Indie and New Wave Music commented of the album, "Alongside standard thrash numbers were highly perceptive attacks on consumer society. The anti-religious 'Is Anybody There' [sic] was a particularly effective example, using simple but jarring lyrics to emphasize its point."[5]
In 2012 Sean Forbes of the Rough Trade shop (and bands including Hard Skin) told Record Collector magazine that the release was "The most inspiring album of all time. Musically, lyrically, aesthetically and politically spot on. It reminds me of bunking off school on the day of release and going to Small Wonder in Walthamstow to buy it."[6]
In 2021, Jeff Walker of Carcass included the record as one of his five favourite punk albums and one of the reasons for him becoming a vegetarian.[7]
Track listing
Side One
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Song for Them"
0:37
2.
"Charity Hilarity"
1:29
3.
"Some of Us Scream, Some of Us Shout"
2:00
4.
"Take Heed"
2:31
5.
"TV Dinners"
4:35
6.
"Tapioca Sunrise"
4:37
Side Two
No.
Title
Length
7.
"Progress"
1:42
8.
"They Lie, We Die"
3:08
9.
"Blinded by Science"
2:37
10.
"Myxomatosis"
2:19
11.
"Is There Anybody There?"
3:50
12.
"The Fun Is Over"
2:16
1989 CD bonus tracks (Neu Smell)
No.
Title
Length
13.
"Sick Butchers"
2:27
14.
"Background of Malfunction"
2:47
15.
"Poem"
0:37
16.
"Tube Disasters"
2:44
17.
"Poem End"
0:44
Total length:
43:00
References
↑ Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.511. ISBN9780195313734.
↑ Gambachini, Paul (1994). British Hit Albums (6ed.). GRR Publications. p.133. ISBN0851127525.
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