After the release of their David Lord-produced debut single "Suffer the Children", "Pale Shelter" was selected as the follow-up. In an effort to sound more commercial, and because Lord was busy recording Peter Gabriel's fourth album, Mike Howlett was brought in to produce. Artistic disagreements between the duo and Howlett (specifically regarding his overuse of Linn drums) led to this being his only work with Tears for Fears. As Curt Smith later noted, "Mike was far too commercial for us. I don't think we felt we were learning anything and we're not good at being pushed in a direction we don't wish to go."