Grotesque (After the Gramme) is the third studio album by English band the Fall. Released on 17 November 1980, it was the band's first studio album on Rough Trade. The album reached number one on the UK Independent Chart, spending 29 weeks on the chart in total. Background and recording This was the first album for drummer Paul Hanley (Steve Hanley's younger brother), who joined the Fall earlier in the year aged 15. Kay Carroll, singer Mark E. Smith's then-girlfriend and the band's manager, played kazoo on "New Face in Hell" and added backing vocals. Grotesque was recorded at Cargo Studios in Rochdale and Street Level in London, with production by the band and Grant Showbiz, Geoff Travis and Mayo Thompson. The album was preceded by two acclaimed singles, "How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'" and "Totally Wired", which were subsequently included on CD reissues of the album. The colour sleeve (the group's first) was drawn by Smith's sister, Suzanne. According to the Slates & Dates press release, this album was, at one point, to be titled After the Gramme – The Grotesque Peasants. Content The Fall's music at the time was described as "Mancabilly", and by Smith himself as "Country 'n' Northern". The album opens with "Pay Your Rates", the lyric described as one that "excoriates small-minded conformity". Second track "English Scheme" was seen as Smith "sneering at the middle class liberals". "New Face in Hell" takes its name from the 1968 film P. J. which was retitled New Face in Hell in the UK. It has been described as "a paranoid tale of sinister government agencies 'disappearing' innocent amateur radio hams". "C'n'C–S Mithering" was seen by AllMusic reviewer Ned Raggett as "a brilliant vivisection of California and its record business, and the attendant perception of the Fall themselves", and by Stereogums Robert Ham as "his sprawling screed at the vapidity of the music industry". The song makes reference to the band's meeting with A&M Records co-founder Herb Alpert ("big A&M Herb was there") while seeking an American record deal. Side one closes with "The Container Drivers", which Al Spicer described as "[shattering] the stereotype of the noble trucker, depicting a world of loudmouthed ignorance and bowel-rotting gluttony". The second side opens with "Impression of J. Temperance", a "stark, mud-stained tale of cloning gone horribly wrong". "In the Park" deals with outdoor sex. "W.M.C. – Blob 59" combines lo-fi tape