On Suburban Rock 'n' Roll Space sought to diverge from the lush, elaborate pop sound of their two previous albums, Tin Planet and Love You More than Football, by embracing a more stripped back, sample-driven style.

Suburban Rock 'n' Roll is the first Space album with no techno/electronic instrumentals from Franny Griffiths, as the band wanted to create a more cohesive listening experience.

Reception to Suburban Rock 'n' Roll was mixed: whilst some critics praised the more mature sound than previous efforts, others considered it a disappointment and questioned the band's longevity and place in the current musical landscape.

However, Gut Records objected to Edwyn Collins being chosen as producer, and forced the band to rework the material several times, delaying its release for over two years.

As a result, Space, now reduced to a four-piece and out of a record label, retreated to the studio for a couple of years, sporadically releasing several songs as MP3s free of charge to download through their website, becoming amongst the first major groups to do so.

Stephen Lironi, who had previously worked with the band on their debut album Spiders, was brought on as producer, as well as contributing additional guitar and keyboard parts, with Gerald "Ged" Lynch providing percussion.

In a webcast interview in 2003, bassist David "Yorkie" Palmer elaborated on the concept of Suburban Rock 'n' Roll: "The album basically deals with the subject of surveillance and a certain loss of freedom in modern society.

"[6] Most of the lyrics was inspired by Tommy Scott's feelings of raising a family in West Derby, a suburban area in Liverpool, and how it parallels with having grown up on a council estate plagued by high levels of crime and unemployment (as previously discussed in the song "Neighbourhood"), as well as his opinions and experiences in the music industry.

Whilst speaking with Scott in the Liverpool Daily Post, writer Philip Key noted that "Suburbanites sometimes feel they are living in a world surrounded by CCTV with young kids on the rampage trying to destroy it.

"[8] Whilst recording Suburban Rock 'n' Roll, the band made a conscious decision not to repeat the sound of their last two albums, and set out to explore more experimental methods, with a greater emphasis on sampling.

"Suburban Rock 'n' Roll" was the only single that managed to chart in top 75, peaking at a lukewarm #67 in the UK, and the only one to receive an official music video, although an animated clip for "20 Million Miles from Earth" was released on the band's website.

Reception to Suburban Rock 'n' Roll was mixed: The Independent reacted to it warmly, calling it a "mature, absorbing work" consisting of "intelligent pop songs in the mould of Pulp and Squeeze, wry refractions of contemporary life which, they'll probably be chagrined to hear, have potential hit appeal".

[15] Meanwhile, Dominic Willis of Rock TV wrote "songwriter and head honcho Tommy Scott lets it all flood out with a collection that's high on humour and musical invention.

Scott likes to fascinate and confound by mixing and matching genres and, as with his Liverpudlian forebear John Lennon, his interests stretch right back to the British music hall tradition.

"[16] York Press gave the album three stars stating "Having lost guitarist Jamie Murphy, and parted company with major label Gut Records, the older and wiser Space are back in action on their own terms - but you can't help thinking their time has been and gone."

",[18] whilst Tim DiGravina of AllMusic awarded it three stars and remarked "Suburban Rock 'n' Roll is charming enough and even quite lovable in medium-sized doses, but one expects more from Space than an album of above-average and agreeably raucous tunes.