The Condition of Muzak—like The Final Programme, A Cure For Cancer, The English Assassin and some related works—continues Moorcock's harlequinade theme and brings it to a climax, though climax may be too simplistic a term in the Cornelius context of a universe in which time and location are wild variables, where endings are hardly ever final, and where the characters have a Tom-and-Jerry-like capacity for resurrecting themselves from personal calamity.

In The Condition of Muzak the Cornelius family—plus the enigmatic figures of Una Persson, Bishop Beesley, Miss Brunner and the others who make up their circle of friends/enemies—are shown again performing all the gyrations of the Entropy Tango, but this time we are aware of the dance slowing down. Jerry Cornelius himself begins to lose his vital force, and near the end of the book the death of his mother is presented as a real and final demise, in a scene which derives considerable power and emotion from that very fact.

This break with the spirit of the original commedia dell'arte, in which the characters are immortally free to appear in any time or place, probably reflects the decline of harlequinade itself—to Moorcock's sorrow….

It is impossible to summarise briefly the plot of The Condition of Muzak—were it possible the author might feel his achievement had not equalled his intent—but the inventive, image-sparking quality of Moorcock's writing is there on every page as the spotlight darts relentlessly from scene to scene….

Throughout the book there is great visual emphasis on dress and details of uniforms and brand names, which is entirely appropriate to its theme, and after a while the reader comes to see and accept that the costume and the mask have a profound influence on the wearer. The chaos that ensues—as chaos must do when the accepted invariant points of time, location and identity are discarded—is well portrayed by Moorcock…. (p. 501)