Following the release of electronic music-inspired third album Intimacy in 2008 and single "One More Chance" the following year, Bloc Party went on an indefinite hiatus as their contract with Wichita came to an end.

[9] During the break, members of the band continued with various side projects; lead guitarist Russell Lissack returned to Pin Me Down and joined Ash for a number of live dates,[10][11] multi-instrumentalist Gordon Moakes formed Young Legionnaire,[12] and frontman Kele Okereke released debut solo album The Boxer.

[14][15] Rumours of a reunion were fuelled by a Christmas photograph circulated on Twitter showing all four members of the band together, and four months later Lissack confirmed the group's intention to record a new album.

[17] The idea to record in New York with producer Alex Newport came about after Okereke and drummer Matt Tong relocated to Manhattan.

[17] The album was officially announced in a blog post Archived 15 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine by Okereke.

Ian Cohen from Pitchfork was more critical, criticising what he calls a "revisionist history" attempt to move back to a guitar-focused sound, and saying that the band "don't have the physical stamina to properly recreate Silent Alarm.

[23] Writing for The Quietus, Matthew Foster said that while the record is "laced with some of the band's hands-down strongest work", citing "The Healing" and "Truth" as examples, the louder tracks such as "Kettling" suffer from what he called a "reliance on the insta-drama of shredding and shrieking".

Yet, Selena Fragassi noted that the single "Octopus" stood out for guitarist Russell Lissack's work.