Early demos for the album were influenced by Joy Division and "Low" by David Bowie. These demos were initially rejected by Creation Records boss Alan McGee, but he later decided to give the band full creative control over the album. Slowdive asked Brian Eno to produce the album and he declined. However, he agreed to do a couple of days of recording with Halstead, and out of these sessions came the tracks "Sing" and "Here She Comes". Following these sessions Halstead began to take greater influence from ambient music and has cited Aphex Twin, dub music, and early drum and bass as influences for the track "Souvlaki Space Station".