[5] He recalled, Oddest of all, it now occurs to me the circular arpeggios in "Clubland" may have secretly been a disrespectful gloss of the Police's guitar style, though obviously with a darker lyrical content that their songs always seemed to lack.

[3] Costello claimed in the liner notes for Trust that the studio version of the song was lacking in comparison to later renditions.

[3] During the album's recording, Costello and the Attractions had "approached this song as if it were to be the next in our only recently broken run of hit singles".

"Clean Money"—which was rejected from Armed Forces in favour of "Accidents Will Happen"—was inspired by Cheap Trick's In Color and was dismissed by Costello as "an overly powdered-up rocker".

[2][7] "Hoover Factory", recorded in 1979, was written before Costello signed his first contract and was originally intended to be the B-side to the "Oliver's Army" single.

[9] The second British single from Trust, "From a Whisper to a Scream", failed to chart at all,[9] despite the guest appearance of Squeeze singer Glenn Tilbrook.

[3] Comedian Adam Carolla praised the song in his book In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks, writing of radio during the 1980s, "We could be hearing 'Clubland' by Elvis Costello or 'Stupefaction' by Graham Parker, but instead we get 'The Safety Dance' by Men Without Hats.