It was originally released on 12 March 1982 by Polydor as the follow-up to the Jam's critically and commercially successful studio album Sound Affects (1980).

[7] The album moves away from the simpler musical forms of In the City and This Is the Modern World (both 1977) as well as the more melodic All Mod Cons (1978), Setting Sons (1979) and Sound Affects (1980), to demonstrate Weller's love of Northern soul.

Funk bass lines and wah-wah guitar effects are often used throughout the album, along with jazz influences such as brass sections and saxophone solos (most notably on the track "Precious") and "Trans-Global Express" which is based on the Northern soul funk hit "So Is the Sun" by the American band World Column, lifting the chorus and rhythm line in their entirety from that song.

The song's title riffs on the novel A Town Like Alice (1950) whilst its lyrics lament disappearing aspects of stereotypical working class life in Margaret Thatcher's Britain.

", which was released as a 7" vinyl single in the Netherlands only, represents the efforts put in by 9-to-5 working men and women of Britain, who keep society running (and as such, are unsung heroes).

The front cover of The Gift depicts the members of the band standing upon the roof of a building close to Oxford Street in the West End of London.

Each member of the band had known the photographs would be separately tinted in the colours of red, amber, and green with the intention being to symbolise the three stages of traffic lights.