Recorded in Singapore and Norway during the height of the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis, "August is the Cruellest", inspired by King Crimson, Soft Machine, Zircon Lounge and others, is described by the band as "a work of political noise, a punishing challenge to look inward and move forward." The title track, inspired by T. S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land", was previously performed live at theatre company Drama Box's Singapore International Festival of Arts 2015 production, "The Cemetery". Writer Ng Yi-Sheng described the song as "growling rock, loud as bulldozers", another critic called it "a searing rock track... raw and loud, melancholic and frustrated, and ends with high-pitched feedback", while "TODAY"'s Mayo Martin noted that "the music evokes anger, frustration, despair and destruction — but perhaps also the slightest trace of hope".