A demo tape was made and heard by Virgin Records staff member Miles Leonard, who organised a show for them in London in July 1991.

Verve recorded "All in the Mind", alongside its B-sides "One Way to Go" and "Man Called Sun", at Impact Studios, a converted barn in Canterbury, Kent.

While attending higher education with his school friends Peter Salisbury and Simon Jones, Richard Ashcroft wanted to form a band.

[1] Around this time, Ashcroft heard Nick McCabe playing in a practice room at Winstanley College in Wigan, Greater Manchester.

After his mother bought him a guitar, Ashcroft started a band with McCabe and a friend as the bassist,[3] named the Butterfly Effect, which was then changed to Raingarden.

[4] Practice sessions followed, with them trying to find their own sound while avoiding the emerging Madchester movement, spearheaded by the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays.

They subsequently spent most of their time jamming in Wigan, securing frequent shows in the town, and recording a demo while in the house of Jones' parents.

[17] Verve joined the roster of independent label Hut Records, which had a contract with Virgin, which consisted of bands from the Madchester scene and other acts that had little support.

[nb 3] Their next show in London saw them support Whirlpool in December 1991;[19] despite not sounding similar to them, Verve were tagged as part of the shoegaze scene.

[22] Schroeder had previously collaborated with John Leckie on the Stone Roses' self-titled debut album (1989);[nb 4] Steve Elswood acted as engineer for the sessions.

[28] Leonard retrospectively said the sessions saw the members develop their unique personalities, such as McCabe wanting to continually improve whatever they were working on, as he could hear a better rendition in his head.

"[30] It was compared to the work of Happy Mondays;[31][32] Clarke noted influences from Echo & the Bunnymen, alongside 1960s acts like the Byrds and the Rolling Stones.

[35] Baker wrote that the tempo slows down akin to the work of Pink Floyd, while Ashcroft's "spacily detached" voice is found to be "drifting over Nick’s chiming guitar", recalling the sound of the Orb.

[41] The concept for the front cover was created after Cannon had been given a lyric sheet and recording of "All in the Mind" by Ashcroft, with the latter telling him the type of mood he was looking for.

"[37] Photographer Michael Spencer Jones took the front cover image, which he compared to a photo shoot in the vein of Cecil B. DeMille.

He originally took it in colour but felt it did not have the right atmosphere, prompting him to shoot it using infrared, which made it look akin to a scene by painter Hieronymus Bosch.

[50][nb 6] The same day as the Melody Maker front cover, the band recorded a John Peel session for BBC Radio 1, where they played "Slide Away", “She's a Superstar", "Already There", and an untitled track.

He added that this ideal was best explored in the video, where it employs obscured visual imagery and fast camera motions, giving it a "dance-y, psychedelic feel.

[54] A live rendition of "A Man Called Sun" was included on the "Gravity Grave" single in late 1992, though it was omitted from the 10-inch vinyl edition.

[35] Melody Maker reviewer Ian Gittins saw the song as a "Doors-on-a-serious-downer brooding trip into the psyche and boasts a rare and valuable arrogance for a début offering.

"[31] Select's Nick Griffiths and Michele Kirsch of City Limits both highlighted the influence from Happy Mondays on the song,[31][32] with the latter stating it was too much to "lift me off terra firma but [it was] redeemed by some inventive guitar bits.

"[31] AllMusic reviewer Brian Horgea praised "All in the Mind" for being a "pop gem with its psychedelic guitar hook," though he acknowledged that it was "not a good representation of the Verve's sound at the time.

Bloody downright marvellous!”[31] In a retrospective review from BrooklynVegan contributor Bill Pearis, he called "All in the Mind" a "propulsive space-hopper jam" that showcases the expert performances from McCabe, Jones, and Salisbury.

Gittins praised the former for being a "beautiful languid drift which [...] pursues its dreams way up beyond the clouds [...]"[67] Pearis noted that "One Way to Go" and "Man Called Sun" signalled the band's direction on A Storm in Heaven.

[66] Horgea expanded on this, saying that both tracks display the band's knack for making "groove[s], building moody songs out of repetitive phrases that are the perfect backdrop for Richard Ashcroft's acid-tinged lyrics.

[28] He explained that it was highly indie in tone, and the "tinniness and low fidelity made the epic nature of the lyric to 'All in the Mind' [...] seem slightly ridiculous [in comparison].