The album featured songs by Peter Hames, Johnny Mulhearn, Hugh McDonald, Colm Gallagher and Floyd Red Crow Westerman; as well as some backing vocals by Enya on "Quiet Desperation", "Sweet Music Roll On" and "The Diamondtina [sic] Drover" and some fine uilleann pipes work by Liam O'Flynn.

The title song, "Ordinary Man", was written by Grimsby musician Peter Hames and depicts a factory worker losing his job as the plant closes down, and his struggle to survive.

The album also has a strong link to Moore's Irish roots with songs like "St. Brendans Voyage" and "Delirium Tremens" both relating directly to Ireland.

The original release of the album featured the song "They Never Came Home", which Moore wrote for the victims and families of the Stardust fire which took place on 14 February 1981, in Dublin.

At the time of the album's release an investigation into the fire had concluded that the cause was most likely arson, a finding which was heavily contested by survivors and families of the victims.