Brix's departure helped define the sound of this album: her background vocals and relatively pop-oriented guitar, which had become mainstays of The Fall, are noticeably absent in this release.

Lead-off single "Telephone Thing" could have been seen as a nod to the Manchester scene of the time as the sound is quite similar to the dance-influenced music that was being released by Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses in 1989.

Elsewhere, Bramah, appearing on his first Fall album since Live at the Witch Trials, adds a distinctly raw, even rockabilly sound to some of the songs.

However, the album's best-known track was one of the least typical of the group's catalogue: "Bill Is Dead", a slow-paced tender love song which topped John Peel's Festive Fifty that year, the only occasion in the DJ's lifetime when his favourite band would do so.

[11] The critical reception to Extricate was largely positive, with Melody Maker suggesting that it was "possibly their finest yet"[12] and NME giving the album a full 10/10.