"Let Me Sleep (Next to the Mirror)" is a mid-tempo song that recalls the early work of the Smashing Pumpkins. "Listen to What You've Got" evoked the work of the Pixies, which Woomble attributed to the American underground rock they liked. As the song was done in Chicago with Weston, Jones was able to use Steve Albini's Travis Bean and IVP guitars to give it "that buzzsaw guitar sound".  "Actually It's Darkness" opens with a post-punk keyboard part, before switching into Oi!-era guitar riff, with a piano-centred bridge section. One of its lines, "shed a shade of shyness" was taken from a live review about Woomble, which he felt "link[ed] together public and personal opinion". "Rusty" featured guitar riffs in the style of Fugazi, which were inspired by Shellac's 1000 Hurts (2000), and also played on the Travis Bean and IVP guitars. During one weekend, Eringa was working as a sound engineer for a Manic Street Preachers show; Idlewild got drunk in the studio, attempting to cover "Save Tonight" (1997) by Eagle-Eye Cherry, and wrote "Mistake Pageant" in the process. The album ends with the ballad "The Bronze Medal", which recalled "All Apologies" (1993) by Nirvana.