It was written by Magne Furuholmen and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, produced by Christopher Neil and arranged by A-ha and Kjetil Bjerkestrand.

The German-made disc is silver and green depicting the Paralympics emblem, while the A-ha logo and track listings are printed in white letters.

It contains three 4½" × 4½" photographic prints, one of each band member (taken from the "Dark Is the Night for All" music video).

Upon its release, Paul Moody of NME commented, "'Shapes That Go Together' – while not being quite as tumultuous as Duran's comeback epic 'Ordinary World' – is a breathy strut as good as any of them [their previous hits].

It is a simple black-and-white studio film with sepia tones, and is one of the few A-ha videos featuring a backing band with a drummer and a bass player.