The Infotainment Scan

The Infotainment Scan came out on Permanent Records in the UK and on Matador in the US, the first of the band's albums to get an official American release since Extricate in 1990. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number 9, their highest-charting album. At the time it was considered their most accessible record, released when the band were getting more media recognition than ever.

It has covers of Sister Sledge's "Lost in Music" and of Steve Bent's "I'm Going to Spain", a song Bent had performed on the talent show New Faces in 1976. Among the originals, Glam-Racket drew attention for the line "you are entrenched in suede". Simon Reynolds described "The League of Bald-Headed Men" as a "diatribe against gerontocracy". "Paranoia Man in Cheap Sh*t Room" adapts the title of a Twilight Zone episode, "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room". The CD adds "Why Are People Grudgeful?", the only track issued as a single, built on two reggae songs, Joe Gibbs' "People Grudgeful" and Lee "Scratch" Perry's "People Funny Boy". Keyboards and programming came from Dave Bush. Rex Sargeant produced most of the album, with Smith and Simon Rogers producing some tracks.

Reception

Reviews were generally positive. Ned Raggett of AllMusic called it "a winner and a half". Keith Cameron of the NME wrote that it stands at the very peak of their canon, Ben Thompson of The Independent said Smith's invective had rarely been more sharply honed, and Simon Reynolds in the New York Times called it one of the band's more approachable records, with lyrics as caustic as ever. Chuck Eddy of Spin was less enthusiastic. The album is included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.