The record was produced by Ed Buller who the band had met through Nude Records' owner Saul Galpern. Both had worked together at Island Records. The band chose to work with Buller not based on his CV but more on a collective liking of him based on a shared interest of music they liked growing up. The band felt that this mutual interest would help shape their musical direction. Lead singer Brett Anderson said: "It wasn't so much us attaching ourselves to his CV, it was more kind of like where we were going to go with band." In terms of writing for the album, Anderson said they had a structural way of doing it. Guitarist Bernard Butler would write guitar parts and melodies mostly on his own. He would then play these in the rehearsal room with bassist Mat Osman and drummer Simon Gilbert playing along. Anderson would then create vocal lines, which he would work on at home changing them to lyrics. These early recordings were done on a cassette recorder rather than a 4-track recorder. 4-track recorders would later be used during recording sessions for the album. During the early recordings, Butler said he was never fully aware of what lyrics Anderson was actually singing in rehearsals or at gigs until much later on. He was more focused on the melodies he was writing himself, saying: "I just always had the feeling that, if he's happy, I'm happy... if it's working, it's working and just go with it." The first two singles, "The Drowners" and "Metal Mickey" were recorded at Protocol Studios as part of the two-single deal signed with Nude.