[3] While re-recording the fourth single from Drawn from Memory, "I Wouldn't Wanna Happen to You", in July 2000, frontman Danny McNamara said they had been working on some new songs.

[5] If You've Never Been was recorded at Soundworks in Leeds, with Ken Nelson and the band producing the sessions; they were aided by engineer Mike Hunter.

[7][8] Nelson and Hunter mixed the recordings at Parr Street in Liverpool, before the album was mastered by Bunt Stafford Clark at The Townhouse in London.

[12] The album opens with the sombre "Over", which discusses the end of a relationship, the initial feelings that result from it, and the eventual acceptance.

[13][14] McNamara said "Many Will Learn" gad a "lost at sea feel" to it, which he compared to "Now You're Nobody", a track from their debut studio album The Good Will Out (1998).

[19] Two versions were released on CD: the first with "Anywhere You Go" and "Everyday", while the second featured "Today", "Caught in a Rush", and the music video for "Wonder" (directed by Grant Gee).

[6][17] It was promoted with club nights across the United Kingdom, leading up to the album's release, a signing session in London, as well as a documentary of one of the two private shows from July 2001.

Drowned in Sound reviewer Michael Clarke found the album to be the band's "best and most consistent record to date" that "doesn’t base itself on the strength of a few uplifting anthems like their previous work has".

[39] PopMatters writer Devon Powers said the album focuses on the band's best elements: "contemplative, passionate, mid-tempo numbers that never lose their poignancy".

[40] Sarah Bee of Playlouder saw it as The Good Will Out' "with added experience and reduced hubris"; she praised McNamara's voice, calling it "pleasant and confident with just a hint of soul".

[37] AllMusic reviewer Ben Davies said the album "hit[s] its target, but has lost something along the way", citing the band's "harder edge".

[41] Dotmusic writer Lisa Oliver noted that while the performance of each song was skilfully done, the majority of the tracks were "let down by excessively mawkish sentimentality".

[9] Stylus's Jon Monks was disappointed with the album, as it "lack[ed] the spark of its predecessor or even the conviction" that their debut had.