Wire and Edwards' love of poetry is also evident in their lyrics. Stuart Maconie of "Select" speculated that the album's lyrics were not primarily written for usage in song format: "You got the impression that often they haven't even been tried out in the mouth". Instead, revolutionary slogans, and rhyme-free verse conveying multiple messages combine to create an album "drenched in Richey and Nicky's cut-n-paste lyrical agitation", with vocalist Bradfield "fitting sentences along the lines of 'Nagasaki royal alienation consumer deathmask strychnine holocaust hate' into the restrictive confines of a melodic rock chorus."