"Boston" is mainly composed of songs written many years prior to their appearance on the album. Scholz wrote or cowrote every song on the first album (with the exception of "Let Me Take You Home Tonight," written by Delp), played virtually all of the instruments and recorded and engineered all the tracks. The "Boston sound" combines "big, giant melodic hooks" with "massively heavy, classically-inspired guitar parts." For Scholz, the idea of beautiful vocal harmonies was inspired by The Left Banke, and the guitar-driven aspect was influenced by the Kinks, the Yardbirds and Blue Cheer. Another signature element of the "Boston sound" in terms of production involves the balance between acoustic and electric guitars. To this end, Scholz was inspired by his childhood listening of classical music, noting that the "basic concept" of setting the listener up for a change that is coming in the music had been explored for hundreds of years in classical compositions. The record also makes use of multiple-part harmonized guitar solos and baroque melodic devices known as mordents.