What Does Anything Mean Basically

Recording

What Does Anything Mean? Basically was recorded in January 1985 at Highland Studios in Inverness, Scotland.

Release

The album's sole single, "Singing Rule Britannia (While the Walls Close In)", was released on 1 August 1985. This song used uncredited Lennon-McCartney lyrics, with the final passage of the song quoting key lyrics of the Beatles song "She Said, She Said".

What Does Anything Mean? Basically was released 1 October 1985 on record label Statik.

Reception

What Does Anything Mean? Basically has been generally well received by critics.

In his retrospective review, Ned Raggett of AllMusic called it "[a] rarity of sophomore albums, something that at once made the band all the more unique in its sound while avoiding a repetition of earlier work. [...] an astounding record." Trouser Press called it "even better" than Script of the Bridge, "with much stronger production underscoring both the band's direct power and the ghostly atmospherics of its icy church keyboards and delay-ridden guitars".

Chris Jenkins, in the book The Rough Guide to Rock, however, called it "as half-baked as its title".

Track listing

All lyrics written by Mark Burgess; all music composed by The Chameleons (Burgess, Dave Fielding, Reg Smithies and John Lever).

Personnel