The instrumental tracks were recorded quickly, but vocalist Simon Le Bon initially struggled to sing in the studio, leading to discussions about replacing him before EMI employee Dave Ambrose intervened.

Its initial US release on Capitol subsidiary Harvest Records was unsuccessful; a reissue there during the height of the band's fame in 1983 reached the top ten of the Billboard chart.

Around this time, they were hired as the resident band of the Birmingham nightclub Rum Runner; the club's owners Paul and Michael Berrow became their managers.

Le Bon struggled to sing at first and did not fit the band's desire for a singer who, according to Rhodes, was a mix between Reed, Bowie and Iggy Pop.

[6] Having written poems and stories during his childhood, the band were impressed with Le Bon's skill with melodies; he composed the lyrics and vocal line for "Sound of Thunder" during his first audition.

Malins writes that Andy's skill as an arranger assisted in forming the band's "rough, undisciplined mixture[s]" of punk, disco and electronic styles into tight, cohesive structures; Roger Taylor's "compact, unshakable drumming" provided a backbone for the group.

[10] They further developed tracks they had debuted live, such as "Night Boat", "Late Bar", "Girls on Film", "Sound of Thunder" and an early version of "Tel Aviv".

[8] John Taylor recalls that "Night Boat", in particular, arose from a "drifting keyboard sample" by Rhodes with Andy's Roland guitar synthesiser.

Throughout the rest of the year, they opened for Pauline Murray and Hazel O'Connor, and secured an article with Sounds magazine, whose writer Betty Page aligned them with the rising New Romantic movement and drew comparisons with the London-based new wave band Spandau Ballet.

[17] Tracks recorded at Red Bus included "Careless Memories", "Night Boat", "Anyone Out There", "To the Shore", "Faster than Light", "Tel Aviv" and "Khanada".

[12] The band briefly returned to Birmingham for a Christmas Eve show,[17] after which Andy Taylor and Rhodes travelled back to London to mix "Planet Earth" with Thurston at Utopia Studio.

[16][18] Due to Le Bon's inexperience with studio recording, the vocal tracks proved difficult;[16] according to Andy Taylor, Thurston was "very rough" on the singer.

The Berrows were initially concerned that they would have to replace Le Bon before EMI's new A&R director, Dave Ambrose, intervened, telling the singer to take his time and remember "it's all about the songs".

[13] Writer Annie Zaleski describes this sound as "space-age keyboards, post-punk guitars, disco-inspired bass lines and Le Bon's vocal croon".

[3] Malins finds the album "full of melodic, dance-floor synthesiser pop delivered with youthful flair and the odd arty twist", at times similar to the "disco-rock" of Blondie's "Call Me" and Japan's Quiet Life (1979).

[10] Malins notes that the album has no guitar solos; Andy contributes "melodic and punchy" work, particularly on "Girls on Film" and "Friends of Mine".

The sexually exploitative "Girls on Film" is a critique of modeling culture, and "Sound of Thunder" tells the story of a man who begins World War III.

The social commentary of "Friends of Mine" includes a line celebrating the release of George Davis, an armed robber who was the subject of a cause célèbre.

In his book Please Please Tell Me Now, Davis writes: "The fear of whispers and unwanted thoughts gives depth to the anxious lyrics, and Le Bon sounds harsh and bitter notes that wouldn't be heard from this band again for a long time".

[8] According to music journalist Stephen Davis, some fans believed that the song (with lines such as "there's no sign of life") was about the arrival of aliens; Le Bon later said that it may have been about the moment a child is born.

[1] The band's American label Capitol Records released "Planet Earth", backed with "To the Shore", in the US on its Harvest subsidiary, which failed to chart due to a lack of promotion.

[1][7] EMI issued a four-track, 12" EP entitled Nite Romantics in Japan, featuring the "night versions" of "Planet Earth" and "Girls on Film".

[1] NME's Chris Bohn and Trouser Press's Ira Robbins felt the band lacked the skills needed to separate themselves from other New Romantic artists.

[41] Smash Hits' Beverly Hillier was also unimpressed, finding "Simon Le Bon's dull and lifeless vocals, together with lots of synth noises and rock guitar combine to make this album sound like one long drawn out single.

[20] Ira Robbins said the album "contains more creative and diverse noises and thoughts than all the real and would-be Spandau Ballets put together" in Trouser Press.

[1] For AllMusic, Eduardo Rivadavia argued the album "artfully coalesced the sonic and stylistic elements of the burgeoning new romantic movement they were soon to spearhead".

[13] In a 2021 article discussing the band's then-recent Future Past record, Rolling Stone called their debut album a "classic" that introduced "a radical new style of art-glam punk-disco swagger".

The new image positioned each band member equally close to the camera and depicted their varied looks, from tanned adventurers to rouged androgynes.

It contained the original album and a number of bonus tracks, including the band's AIR and Manchester Square studio demos recorded on 29 July and 8 December 1980, respectively.

[54] Andy Taylor, who had left the band by that point,[55] criticised the remaster, saying that it "sounds like it was done down the pub" and condemned EMI for promoting the demos as bonus tracks: "They should be gifting them to fans after 30 years of support...shame on all involved".