Realised with an expanded array of collaborators, including a number of notable record producers, the album's instrumentation combined the synthesizers, drum machines and found objects of previous releases with conventional guitar, bass and percussion.

"Salt Lake City Sunday" satirized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from its practice of tithing ("They want you to repent/They want your ten per cent") to its belief in conversion of the deceased ("You leave my ancestors to rot in their graves").

The jaunty title track and then-current single, "Fireside Favourite", juxtaposed sexual conquest with nuclear nightmare imagery ("Hey now honey, open your eyes/There's a mushroom cloud up in the sky/Your hair is falling out and your teeth have gone/Your legs are still together but it won't be long").

"Insecticide", also released as the B-side of "Fireside Favourite", was narrated from a fly's point of view ("I creep up the wall/And then across the ceiling/I spin round the bulb/And land on a sandwich").

The closing track, "Arch of the Aorta", was a largely instrumental piece with looped background voices depicting conversation between medical staff and a patient.