Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	62/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
BBC	unfavourable
The Bulletin
The Guardian
NME
The New York Times	mixed
Pitchfork	2.2/10
The Quietus	favourable
Spin
The Wire	favourable

Ersatz GB is the 28th studio album by the post-punk band The Fall, released on Cherry Red Records 14 November 2011. It is The Fall's first album on Cherry Red.

Ersatz GB marks the first time in the history of The Fall that the group have released three consecutive studio albums recorded with the same line-up.

Ersatz GB was recorded partially in London with lead singer Mark E. Smith's vocals being recorded at ToeRag Studios in Hackney and partially in Berlin. It features the same group lineup as its two immediate predecessors, Imperial Wax Solvent (2008) and Your Future Our Clutter (2010), establishing the current lineup as unusually stable by The Fall's standards. The album was produced by Mark E. Smith and The Fall's frequent collaborator and former bass guitarist Simon Archer. In his sleevenotes for the album, Smith wrote that "brighter mixes and versions, tracks" existed, but that these were dismissed because "brightness does not fit with ERSATZ GB". In a 2012 interview, Smith claimed that the mix that was released was not the one he preferred.

All 10 songs on the album were extensively previewed by the group live, and the first song to appear in live sets - "Greenway" - appeared early in the tour for previous album Your Future Our Clutter.

One year before its release, Mark E. Smith described Ersatz GB as "a lot heavier" than its predecessors. Keyboardist Eleni Poulou stated that she added "a lot of keyboard layers on this one, in an atmospheric, melodic way", preferring to use analogue rather than digital keyboards. She also sang lead vocals on "Happi Song".

Critics suggested that the music of Ersatz GB was influenced by rockabilly and krautrock, known to be among Smith's favourite genres. Other possible influences identified by critics included Captain Beefheart and The Velvet Underground. The song "Greenway" is based on "Gameboy" by the Greek comedy metal band Anorimoi, from their 2005 album Kings of Feta. Smith wrote new lyrics for the song in English.

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