The Menace, released in 2000, is Elastica's second full-length album.
After the release of their eponymous debut record in 1995, the band started touring and in the process started partying ferociously and dabbling in drugs. The first attempt to record their second work was in France and Ireland at the end of 1996, but internal problems caused the departure of members (including vocalist/guitarist Donna Matthews and bassist Annie Holland) and the temporary dissolution of the group.
Leader Justine Frischmann, who had recently broken up with boyfriend Damon Albarn of Blur, started to work on Brian Eno-influenced mood music with flatmate Loz Hardy of Kingmaker, resulting on tracks like "Miami Nice" and "My Sex", which ended up on the album. Frischmann reconnected with Annie Holland in early 1999 and formed a new line-up of the band, including keyboardist/vocalist Mew, formerly of Heave, guitarist Paul Jones (Lineoleum's former member) and keyboardist Dave Bush, formerly of The Fall.
The band listened to previous recordings of the material and decided to re-do it all in four weeks, in September 1999. Bush's ex-bandmate Mark E. Smith participated in the writing and recording process of two songs in the album ("How He Wrote Elastica Man" -- a pun on the Fall's "How I Wrote Elastic Man" -- and "KB"). The album also features two early sessions with Donna Matthews ("Image Change" and "How He Wrote Elastica Man") and a Trio cover, "Da Da Da", featuring the keyboards of Damon Albarn, under the name Norman Balda.
The cover photo was taken by visual artist and musician Maya Arulpragasam also directed the video for "Mad Dog God Dam"
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