The album represented a turning point in the musical maturation of the band, after a turbulent period of personnel changes in which they shrank from a six-man ensemble to a quartet.

The band's main patrons at CBS Records had largely left the company by this time,[2] and their successful recent producer, Steve Lillywhite, was now unavailable to them.

[3] Columbia management first attempted to match the band with David Bowie, who was a high-profile Furs supporter and who expressed enthusiasm for working with them.

[4] The band members gathered for an exploratory visit to his Utopia Sound studio in upstate New York where Rundgren, who was already a fan of the Furs' music, quickly signed onto the project.

[2][9][10] Rundgren invited the band to move their recording sessions from his commercial space into the private studios in his own home on nearby Mink Hollow Road, Lake Hill, New York.

Gary Windo was a renowned saxophonist in the jazz world who had in recent years collaborated with major rock acts like Ian Hunter and Nick Mason.

[2][15] Flo & Eddie (singers Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman) arrived at the end of recording time when the band thought all the tracks were finalised.

When they learned of the vocal duo's purpose, "they weren't really up for it," said Kaylan; the two veterans "represented establishment ... [W]e literally felt like, for the first time as session guys, we were proving ourselves".

[15] "We did the three or four cuts that Todd had brought us up to do, and we shook hands with everybody", Kaylan recalled, but as they were preparing to leave, Rundgren asked them to listen to the album's planned single.

[9] His more unorthodox methods included an instance of climbing to the roof of the studio and dropping lit firecrackers near the unsuspecting band when "we were sort of playing a little sluggishly", as Tim Butler recalled.

[17] By his various means, Rundgren motivated the players to create, and by his well-known personal style of power pop-inflected "wall of sound" production,[18] he restored the band's sonic richness – the signature Furs characteristic described approvingly in Rolling Stone as "the thick, viscous smear of guitars, drums and vocals".

[10][21] Much of the album had been composed and committed to demo form before the band arrived at Rundgren's studio,[17] but the producer felt that the first crop of tunes was insufficient.

He expected a full working album worth of songs to be ready, whereas the Furs believed that their creative process had always flourished best inside a studio.

British keyboardist and future music producer Ed Buller helped to create many of the demos made before the band returned.

[2][14] Although never an official member of the Furs, Buller supplied much-needed musical accompaniment at this stage, and would go on to collaborate frequently with the band over the next six years.

[2] Other prominent tracks on the album include the overtly political rocker "President Gas";[18] and "Danger" which, with its "headlong pace and slamming beat",[19] was described by critic Ken Tucker as "the most ferocious, impassioned song the Furs have ever recorded".

[23] The song has nonetheless had an enduring afterlife – it has appeared in movie soundtracks like The Wedding Singer, Valley Girl,[24] and Call Me by Your Name;[25] in video games, including Rock Band and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City;[24] and in a wide variety of genre compilation albums.

[26] Rundgren also left his mark on the song's vocal line, persuading Richard Butler to forego his usual "sarcastic tone" and instead "sing it straight".

[37] In support of the album, the Furs launched a concert tour beginning in the UK, with their 10 October 1982 performance at the Hammersmith Odeon broadcast live on BBC Radio One.

[40] When the tour resumed in January, Windo was unable to make the next leg to Australia and New Zealand, so the band arranged for the saxophonist Mars Williams to take his place.

[7] The Boston Phoenix said that "for the first time the Furs successfully invoke every element of the lineage they define: mid-60s Beatles meet early Velvets as reinterpreted by descendants of Bowie and contemporaries of the Sex Pistols.