To pass the time, bandleader Ivan Doroschuk began jamming with Voivod drummer Michel Langevin and Doughboys member John Kastner and listening to Bleach by Nirvana, which would shape the sound of the album.

On 6 September 1990, Men Without Hats debuted the new image and sound in a surprise appearance at Les Foufounes Electriques in Montreal, with Mitsou Gelinas as a guest.

The band eschewed the use of either of their logos (the crossed out man wearing a hat and the heart with the number 21 in it) for this release, instead opting to use a simple font (MENWITHOUTHATS).

On the concert tour to support the album, even the band's older hits, including "The Safety Dance," "Pop Goes the World" and "Hey Men", were readapted to fit the rock-oriented sound.

"Love (All Over the World)" was written for Colin Doroschuk's daughter Sahara Sloan, who had been born the year prior, and who would later go on to join her father and uncle on the group's 2021-22 albums Men Without Hats Again.

The Men still have an ear for a melody and a hook which give the screaming guitars and turbo drumming their sonic direction,"[6] while Ted Shaw of the Windsor Star wrote that the album "harkens back to the late-1960s and early-'70s when rock was moving towards heavy metal but still grounded in the blues.