Frith described the theme of "Speechless" as revolving around "questions of power and language, of striving to find a voice but remaining always on the edge being understood." This notion came to him when he once tried to listen to a recording of an interview he had done, and the cassette machine played back both sides of the tape at the same time, one of them backwards, rendering the words unintelligible. Andrew Jones wrote in "Plunderphonics, 'pataphysics & pop mechanics: an introduction to musique actuelle" that "Speechless" is "ultimately about being unable to articulate the words that once flowed freely."