"Ballet for a Rainy Day", lyrically, is a portrait of a rainy town and its raincoats, fruits, and collapsing hairdos. Partridge: "The one thing I remember about the rain as a child was my mother cursing that her new hairdo was going to get ruined." There was an argument over the lyric "silent film of melting miracle play". Rundgren was unaware that "Miracle Plays" were biblical performances from the Medieval times, and thinking that Partridge was mistaken, requested that it be changed to "passion play". Partridge refused because he wanted to maintain the alliteration in "melting miracle". "Tickets for the front row seats up on the rooftops" is an homage to the Blue Nile's "A Walk Across the Rooftops" (1984). According to music critic Joe Stannard, "Ballet" and the two following tracks "distil the flawless orch-pop of "Smile" and "Abbey Road" into a handy three-song suite."