[11] Two of the tracks, "Metranil Vavin" and "Pussyface", had in fact been originally intended for The Teardrop Explodes (and different versions of each appear on the belated 1990 release of the band's scrapped third album, Everybody Wants to Shag...

Although World Shut Your Mouth generally retained the uptempo pop drive of The Teardrop Explodes, it was also an introspective and surreal work.

Cope had spent a period in seclusion in which he recovered from the strain of the final year of the Teardrops and from his LSD excesses of the times.

[11] His eccentric behaviour both during and post-Teardrops had led to him being labelled by the music media as an "acid casualty" in the vein of Syd Barrett and Roky Erikson, an image which would take him several years to shake off.

World Shut Your Mouth was released on Mercury Records in March 1984, but was seen by critics as somewhat pastoral and out-of-step with the times.