[11] Building on the experimental sound of his previous self-titled studio album, it saw Gabriel embracing post-punk and new wave with an art rock sensibility.

Gabriel also explored more overtly political material with the anti-war song "Games Without Frontiers" (which became a No.

Synthesizer player Larry Fast introduced him to the PAiA "Programmable Drum Set", which offered full programmability, allowing Gabriel to program his own drum rhythms to build songs around during the writing process.

"Artists given complete freedom die a horrible death", he explained to Mark Blake.

[16] Lillywhite explained: Gabriel "didn't want to use cymbals and I had been really experimenting with this ambience thing which actually started with [drummer] Kenny Morris with the first [Siouxsie and the] Banshees' album.

This earlier version wound up as the B-side of the advance "Games Without Frontiers" single instead in those territories.

The album version of this song appeared as the A-side of a 12" single in the United States and Canada.

Paul Weller, who was recording with his band the Jam in a nearby studio, contributed guitar to "And Through the Wire".

Commenting on his lyrics, Gabriel jokingly summarised the album's themes as "the history of a decaying mind".

He added: "State of mind was definitely an area of interest at the time of writing it, but I never really set out with a concept.

Of "No Self Control", he said: "That's something which I've observed in myself and in other people… In a state of depression, you have to turn on the radio, or switch on the television, go to the fridge and eat, and sleeping is difficult.

[23] The album cover, inspired by the work of photographer Les Krims, shows an image of Gabriel in which the left side of his face appears to be melting.

After all the trouble incurred when Atlantic dropped the album, Gabriel stated that he felt vindicated by the public's reaction.

[27] Geffen (at the time distributed by Atlantic sister label Warner Bros. Records) reissued the album in 1983, after Mercury's rights to it lapsed, and marketed it in the United States until 2010, when Gabriel's back catalogue was reissued independently by Real World Records.

In his review for Rolling Stone, Dave Marsh described Peter Gabriel as "a tremendous record" that "sticks in the mind like the haunted heroes of the best film noirs".

[40] In 2020, Rolling Stone included this record in their "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list, praising Gabriel "for a haunting LP that touches on political assassinations (“Family Snapshot”), the futility of war (“Games Without Frontiers”), and the brutal murder of South African activist Steve Biko (“Biko”).

[42] In February 1980, German-language versions of "Games Without Frontiers" and "Here Comes the Flood" were released as a single in Germany.