The album opens with the sound of tolling bells before the beginning of "Poppy Day". The words were based on John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields", which was written in 1915 after the loss of a friend during a First World War battle. "Poppy Day", a short track with a long introduction building over what one journalist called "shards of John McKay's guitar" and a "strident militaristic backbeat", had been shaped after Steven Severin had observed the televised two minutes of silence in memory of the war dead on Sunday, 12 November 1978. "We wanted to write a song that would fittingly fill that gap", he stated. On the inner sleeve of the album, the mention "2 minutes of silence" was added next to the lyrics of the song.