[4][5] They released the compilation album Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline in September 2000, which was preceded by appearances at the Reading and Leeds Festivals.

[6] As the band had spent the preceding three years constantly touring, they took six-month break and visited Australia, Cambodia, and Vietnam, before working on their next album.

[9] Sessions for the new album were held at Batsford Manor and Real World Studios, where the band and Miti Adhikari handling recording, with assistance from Claire Lewis.

[10] Musically, the sound has been described as alternative country, garage rock,[8] and experimental pop,[11] with influence from electronica,[12] which the band had previously touched on with the Machismo E.P..[4] The album is split into two parts: one centred around acoustic instrumentation, and the other being dance-based.

[12][16] The psychedelic and electronic funk track "Rex Kramer" features guitarist Ben Ottewell on lead vocals.

[24] "Ruff Stuff" sees arcade game sounds mixed with funk; it talks about a relationship that is ruined by the narrator's drug addiction.

[14] "Miles End" talks about a ladies' man that has lost his ability to attract women, and is followed by the Brit funk song "Ping One Down".

"[7] The album concludes with "Ballad of Nice & Easy", a southern rock song, which was reminiscent of the work of the Allman Brothers Band.

[21] No Ripcord's David Coleman found that some of the tracks were "tricky to listen to, but Gomez's credit a lot of it hits the spot as well".

[16] Nude as the News's Western Homes wrote that the album was an improvement on "its languid predecessor [...] both in terms of economy and hooks, and the songs here largely don't outstay their welcomes".

[50] Rolling Stone reviewer Ernesto Lechner considered the songwriting to be "focused", with "plenty of soul beneath the multilayered structures and aesthetic braggadocio".

[18] Stylus writer Steve Lichtenstein said that "what ultimately drowns" the album was the "misguided attempts at moody electronica," which they had done more successfully in the past.

[26] Pitchfork contributor Eric Carr said the band "has seen fit to unleash a third installment in their war against discerning audiophiles everywhere, and they call it In Our Gun".

He referred to it as "Frankenstein's monster of an album-- overwrought and disjointed, executed with some technical precision, but completely devoid of any flow, feeling, or spontaneity.