The album's mood changes quickly on the second track, "Hard Shoulder", a song about a long-standing friendship. The song was described as "soaked through with the poignancy of hindsight and memory." "Hard Shoulder" is followed by "Suntrap", featuring Spanish guitar playing from Beer, and the poignant and gentle "Smile She Said", which tells of the journey of a relationship in five "exposures". Following this is the traditional song "Reynardine" which music written by Knightley. The song also features Knightley's hallmark finger drumming, this time on the cuatro, which he was taught by exiled Chilean musician Vladamir Vega during their time in Alianza in 1991. The track an unusual pulsating treatment. Knightley's singing on the ballad "Seven Days" is accompanied by young West Country singer Jenna Witts, with whom Knightley and Seth Lakeman recorded the album "Western Approaches" with the following year. Following the aforementioned cover of "Tommy" are the "jaunty" song "Be Lucky", the traditional folk song "Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy" which again features Beer on vocals, and had originally been recorded by the duo with Alianza in 1991, and the "gentle" song "I Promise You". Before the album closer "Don't Be a Stranger", which was a former concert closer for the duo, is the upbeat "Red Diesel", about Terry, "the kind of guy that modern society doesn't really have much time for". The track features Knightley's mandocello and Beer's mandolin forming a "foot tapping" rhythm. Terry is a minor criminal who complains that "there ought to be a law for keeping out the yuppies and the grockles".