[3] Wanting a sparser sound, Mogwai drew influences from Seventeen Seconds by The Cure and Spiderland by Slint[4] as well as Low, Nick Drake and The For Carnation.

[5] The songs "Christmas Steps" and "Ex-Cowboy" had been played live by the band during the tour for Mogwai Young Team.

Still slow and sinuous, it features an uncharacteristically distinct melody, slide guitar and relatively prominent vocals.

Much of Come On Die Young consists of slow, quiet, drum-driven tracks containing tense, feedback-laden crescendos and occasionally ambient textures.

Near the end of the album, the bombastic "Christmas Steps" breaks away from this quiet tension and displays a return to Mogwai's more well-known distortion-heavy dynamics.