The album was an attempt by the group to strip down their previously lush, psychedelic sound in order to be better able to perform the songs in concert.

"[4] He continues, "It was quite refreshing, actually, doing the A Question of Balance album...getting back to that place where we could just get a bunch of songs together with a bit less instrumentation going on, that we could just sit around in a room and play.

According to drummer Graeme Edge, "We very much wanted to reflect what the title says: that maintaining yourself is a question of balance.

"[8] Apart from the desire to record songs with simpler arrangements, Mike Pinder remembers the album being more influenced by domestic life as well as global concerns: "We were all getting married and having kids.

"Question", the lead track on the album, was written by Hayward as a protest song about war.

The group were influenced by their experiences interacting with Americans on their concert tours, and the fear and anger about the draft during the Vietnam war.

We were mixing with these people and seeing how different the problems were for them and the issues in being a member of the greatest nation on earth: the United States.

Pinder points out the irony of damaging the environment to dig up precious metals and refine them only to place them right back into the ground again at depositories.

"The Tortoise and the Hare", written by bassist John Lodge, takes direct inspiration from the fable by Aesop.

"[19] Hayward's "It's Up to You" was inspired by one of his relationships; he wrote the song on his newly acquired cherry red Gibson.

[20] Mike Pinder interprets a broader meaning from the song, one of taking responsibility on an individual level for global problems.

He explains, "'It's Up to You' is very much a starker reality that people still need to realize, that it's up to the individual to make anything better, whether it be a political vote or in conserving water or in not polluting the planet.

What we're seeing now is just more results of what was being done then and what continues to be done by the industrial giants and governments of the world, and the greedy little cigar-smoking guys like on the album cover.

The accompanying music was originally arranged for Lodge's song, "The Tortoise and the Hare", which was later reworked.

Sessions between 17 and 31 January yielded the backing tracks for "It's Up to You", "Tortoise and the Hare", "And the Tide Rushes In", "Don't You Feel Small" and "Question".

Hayward remembers, "With "Question", the song, recorded before the album, there's no double-tracking, just echo and a big old 12-string guitar.

Some of Hayward's guitar work on "Dawning is the Day" was recorded at half-speed to create a mandolin-like effect.

[28] Hayward credits the expertise of Varnals and Clarke in capturing his desired guitar sound throughout the album: "Oh, they were really superb.

"[29] Hayward and Pinder's guitar work on "Melancholy Man" reminded producer Clarke of the type of music that would appear on a French film soundtrack, and he leaned into that feeling during the song's production, limiting the use of echo on the track.

Appropriately, the song subsequently became a number one hit in France, and received heavy airplay in the era surrounding the death of Charles DeGaulle.

[31] The bottom of the image features a beach scene with beach-goers enjoying the sun while a menacing storm cloud approaches.

Travers explains the meaning of the imagery: "The people on the sleeve are actually just sitting there, on holiday, basking in the sunshine with presumably not a care in the world.

"[32] Travers originally included a small painting of John Blashford-Snell in the cover collage.

The image was of Snell wearing a pith helmet, holding a pistol and pointing it at an elephant.

After the album was released, Snell sued Decca Records and the band over the image, saying it was "a source of constant embarrassment over being on the cover."

Travers, with the direction of Decca, changed the image of Snell to that of a man without a pith helmet holding the pistol.

[33] The collage of pictures of the band in the center of the album's gate-fold was produced by projecting several images onto a single screen.