The back cover shows a long-exposure shot of the M8 motorway carving through Glasgow city centre (taken from Charing Cross), with the Mitchell Library and Elmbank Gardens on either side.

The short intro, "Born in a Storm", melodic and interspersed with an unmistakably gloomy atmosphere created by the name, launches into the title track "Raintown", a natural extension of this plot.

Played out in the course of the album is the struggle with money ("Loaded"), unemployment, dreams of something better ("Dignity", "The Very Thing"), culminating in an angry attack upon urban life ("Town to Be Blamed").

[citation needed] In an interview given to the Daily Record in 2012, songwriter Ricky Ross explained the rationale and reasoning behind the writing of all of the songs on the album.

[4] Spin called it, "a listener's delight, yet a reviewer's frustration — no easy comparisons, no simple descriptions, no trendy affiliations, because few other acts make such surprisingly timeless, sophisticated, and genuinely emotional pop music these days.