Bassist Dave Hawes explained, "The main thing I remember when going to record Chrome was that we didn't just want to make Ferment 2.

It just seemed a natural process and so Chrome turned into a harder sounding album and I think Gil Norton was the perfect producer for us at that point of time.

The video for "Crank" featured the band playing in a hotel elevator and lobby to a motley cast of hotel guests, with several scenes emulating the persecution, death, and resurrection of Jesus; "Show Me Mary" had the band being driven around in a taxi; "The Nude" featured the smearing of wet clay across a topless woman's torso.

Melody Maker described Chrome as "a tighter, more robust affair" than Ferment and "perhaps the ultimate Catherine Wheel album".

[9] In Trouser Press, Jack Rabid wrote that the album "combines songwriting prowess with more raging playing, pop tunes gone kablooey and a huge bonfire sound with a faint metal edge.