“Songmy” in the album title is a reference to “Son My”, a village in South Vietnam, the location of the mass murder, rape and mutilation of some 400 unarmed civilians by the US Army during its Vietnam campaign in 1968. The material on the album is heavily socio-political in tone, drawing on high-profile contemporary events like the Kent State shootings; the Tate–LaBianca murders; the Vietnam War; and the then escalating American protests against the war.