Following the critical success but commercial failure of the group's previous album Your Majesty... We Are Here (1996), Earl Brutus spent a year recording Tonight in their Wembley studio.

The album continues the band's aggressive sound, mixing glam rock and electronic influences and incorporating the group's distinctive "post-pub" lyrical style.

The album cover was designed by Scott King and depicts two cars feeding each other exhaust fumes via a hose in a visual metaphor for corporate suicide.

"[1] Having signed to Deceptive Records, the group had settled into a line up of Sanderson, vocalist Jamie Fry, guitarist Rob Marche and keyboardist Gordon King by the time of their debut album, Your Majesty... We Are Here (1996), which received much press attention but was commercially unsuccessful.

"[3][6] Far ahead of the album's release, "The SAS and the Glam That Goes With It" was issued as a single in October 1997,[3] and in January 1998, the group cemented their standing as an energetic live act at the NME Brat Awards.

[11] According to writer Roy Wilkinson of Select, the album displays a witty "audio portrait of post-pub '90s Britain," highlighting influences of glam rock and The Fall and contrasting lyrics about television chefs and Tudorbethan mansions.

[9] Earl Brutus interpolate the guitar riffs of the Osmonds' "Crazy Horses" into "Second Class War" and Hawkwind's "Silver Machine" into "Male Wife",[13] the latter of which closes the album in a chaotic fashion.

[19] As part of his Britlins exhibition, Scott King created the post-postmodern installation piece You Are Your Own Reaction (2018), referencing a line from Earl Brutus' "The SAS and the Glam That Goes with It".

[24] The group featured in Spin magazine's 2009 list of "Unsung: The 100 Greatest Bands You've (Probably) Never Heard", where writer Doug Brod highlighted Tonight You Are the Special One as "Essential Listening".

The Tonight reissue was available as a vinyl – marking the first time it was released on the format – and as a double CD featuring bonus material and extensive liner notes.

Marrying March's dub echo loops and Sanderson's heavy drums and Timpani percussion, it was recorded in only several hours and described by Fry as a "lost Brutus classic".

"[9] Writing for Louder Than War, Ioan Humphreys highlighted the "riffs, attitude and theatricals" and felt the record's abrasive, confrontational style would "drag and suck you in to [the band's] nasty plan."

"[8] Reviewing the reissue for Louder Sound, author David Stubbs commented that "The SAS and the Glam That Goes with It" exemplifies "the sort of essential waste product that the north is great at and the south can’t quite get its head around.