The album is notable for being the first Suede album to have a title track. "Head Music" was one of Anderson's personal offerings, which Nude's Saul Galpern insisted should not go on the album. Osborne actually refused to record it, instead they got Arthur Baker to do a version, however they disliked it. Osborne eventually relented, but was not so flexible when it came Codling's next offering. "Elephant Man", which is the only song on a Suede album not written or co-written by Anderson. It was recorded, mixed and engineered by Bruce Lampcov. Codling contributed a greater amount of material to "Head Music" than "Coming Up", receiving writing credits on six songs. Recording took six months but was extended by a break mid-way for more writing, finishing up more than two months over schedule. Danton Supple, who mixed the album with Osborne said: "Brett and I felt we were short of a couple of songs to complete the album. It would have been good to finish last year. We had the album but not the arrangements and we’ve just been mixing since."