After the commercial failure of Shout, Warner Bros. contacted Devo's manager Elliot Roberts and made an offer to terminate the arrangement, which they accepted, but by 1987, the band still had no new contract.

[3] Longtime drummer Alan Myers also left at this time and was replaced by David Kendrick, who had previously worked with Devo's Bob Casale.

[9] The song also paraphrases a lyric from the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" and appeared in Interplay's computer adventure game, Neuromancer, itself an adaptation of the 1984 novel of the same name by William Gibson.

"The Shadow" has lyrics that contain numerous references to literary works such as the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

For the silhouette photo on the back cover, the band members posed naked, in a spoof of Prince's Lovesexy album art.

[14][15][16] Both formats include gatefold sleeves with spot gloss logos and shapes, a fold-out poster and liner notes from band member Gerald Casale.

[20] Michael Azerrad of Rolling Stone magazine awarded the album one star out of five, dismissing it as "a desperate SOS from main writer Mark Mothersbaugh.

"[22] In a retrospective review, Steve Huey of AllMusic said Total Devo found the band to be "no longer innovative and not incredibly compelling.