The Facts of Life is a new wave, synth-pop and psychedelic-lounge rock album that took elements from the works of Momus, Pet Shop Boys and Saint Etienne.

[7] Between February and April 1999, Black Box Recorder played shows at The Garage in London, where they debuted two new tracks, namely "The Art of Driving" and "May Queen".

[7] Alongside this, the publication mentioned that the band were in the midst of recording their next album;[10] Moore recounted that as it was the start of summer, there was a "breezy atmosphere, which rubbed of on us", viewing themselves as Blondie.

[13] Upon hearing that "The Facts of Life" was to be the album's first single, Haines was adamant about having Pete Craigie mixing it, with the latter having recently worked on "Honey to the Bee" (1999) by Billie.

The band visit Craigie at his studio, where at Nixey's description, he "saturate[s] our perfect pop song with tons of whoosy-swooshy sounds," most of which were subsequently left out of the mix.

[14] The album shifts its lyrical focus to transportation, as heard in "The Art of Driving" and "The English Motorway System", moving away from the end-of-the-world narrative of their debut.

[15] Alongside this, Sonicnet's Tony Fletcher said the album "primarily conjures rural imagery — though its talk of nature walks and open fields, coming at a time when the English countryside is closed off to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, makes for a curiously nostalgic effect".

[16] AllMusic reviewer Dean Carlson said the band move away from the "voyeuristic, cynical stare" of England Made Me towards "suicide and car crashes and focused it on small-town dating and disenchanted sex lives".

[18] The staff at Orlando Weekly wrote that it was "even more sinister beauty [than their debut], focusing their collective furrowed brow on British indifference and pedestrian society";[19] Neate remarked that the members' "sensibility and attitude remain unmistakably English, its songs steeped in a tradition of comfortably ironic, darkly humorous, self-mocking misery".

[22] Musically, the sound of The Facts of Life has been described as new wave[23] and synth-pop,[24] with elements from the works of Momus, Pet Shop Boys, Pink Floyd,[25] Portishead and Saint Etienne.

He added that it was "distant cousins" to the work of Air and Belle and Sebastian, "utiliz[ing] their relaxed songwriting nature to near-perfectly compliment the haunting vocals" of Nixey.

[26] NME's Jim Alexander wrote that the music was "rigged with soulful flourishes, the tinkle of glockenspiel, gently-looped R&B; beats," mixing the direction of Air and Pulp to create "satin smooth subliminal pop".

[20] Walters wrote that the album's opening track, "The Art of Driving", swaps an "elaborate motoring metaphor for seduction, a boy's foot heavy on the accelerator, [and] a girl warning him to put on the brakes".

[27] Author Guy Mankowski wrote in Albion's Secret History – Snapshots of England's Pop Rebels and Outsiders (2021) that in the song, Haines' "psyche had been warped by urban living", akin to a J. G. Ballard-like figure.

[15] "French Rock'n'Roll" discusses a woman being saved from suicide by the effect of music;[27] Juzwiak said the track's chorus section was accompanied by a guitar part that "intensifies the canned drums and xylophone twinkling".

[3] In a review for Q, journalist Stuart Maconie said in "Goodnight Kiss", the album's closing track, the "end of an evening is expanded into a valediction for England",[25] with references to locations such as the Blackpool Tower, Severn Bridge and Southend-on-Sea.

[35] With "Brutality", Freaky Trigger contributor Robin Carmody said Nixey sounds clearly "disgusted by what she's chronicling, she can't be part of it, she looks back at its historical association with her own social class and background with deep contempt".

Two versions were released on CD: the first with a radio edit of "The Facts of Life", "Soul Boy" and "Start as You Mean to Go On" and the second with "Brutality" and "Watch the Angel, Not the Wire".

[1] The music video for "The Facts of Life", directed by Lindy Heymann,[7] takes place in a classroom with Nixey as the teacher, which is interspersed with shots of two students getting ready for school.

[23] Carlson noted that keeping with their debut, The Facts of Life had "barren instrumentation [...] but this time around, there seems to be a pop sensibility that evokes far more seditious strengths than ever before", which offered a "delightfully sinister contradiction".

[17] The Guardian critic Caroline Sullivan remarked that when aided by Nixey, Haines "perfected the art of the deceptively tranquil pop song" as there was "always more going on under the surface than you expect".

[15] Maconie wrote that while "there's still many penumbral moments on The Facts Of Life, happily [the band] blossomed into a real pop group - albeit of a very skewed sort".

[20] Bob Gulla of Wall of Sound praised Haines for something that "few writers can pull off such [as] a sharp, smart sense of sarcasm and still keep listeners enthralled".

Rolling Stone reviewer Rob Sheffield said Nixey's "velvet vocals are the centerpiece of the music, making the melodies soar over" the guitar and keyboard instrumentation.

[27] Juzwiak thought that Nixey continued to be "faulty in her cleverness and smugness", mentioning that "when she's not merely speaking and opens her pipes to really sing, she proves herself a righteous puppet".