Opening track "Martin Roachford's/The Oyster Woman's Rant" runs at over seven minutes. The opening sound of water is a recording of a small river in Glen Douglas. "The Folk Police" was written by the band's Peter Morrison during his youth, and was described as being given a "new name and a new lease of life" with its appearance on the album, whilst "Cptain Coull's Parrot" was written in honour of a parrot belonging to the band's manager's brother, a boat skipper, who taught the parrot "unrepeatable statements". The title track features briefly features a recording of birds in its intro that were recorded at Ronnie Rae Junior's house in Nice, France. The track was originally called "So You That That Was Mellow", in reference to the reaction from the band's record label Greentrax Recordings in reaction to the band's preceding album, "Mellowosity". "Caberdrone" almost was not featured on the album until the band re-listened to it and thought "that's great". The closing track, "Alexander MacAskill of Berena, Harris" features a fusion of African music, dub music and pipes. The track which precedes it on the album, "Weirdness", is a minute long instrumental interlude which is described in the liner notes as simply "weird noises" created by the band.