Although the band's accompanying 2 On 2 Tour with several other 2 Tone acts was fraught with violence, it also helped achieve, in part, the album's commercial success.

In 1977, Coventry-based musicians Neol Davies (guitar), Barry Jones (trombone) and John Bradbury (drums) recorded a rocksteady instrumental together named "The Kingston Affair".

In 1979, when 2 tone initiators the Specials, for which Bradbury had become drummer, had spent their entire recording budget (allegedly £700) for their debut single "Gangsters", the band were still requiring a B-side for the song, Bradbury suggested "The Kingston Affair", which at that point had remained unreleased; it became the song's B-side with the new name "The Selecter", and was credited to the band name the Selecter too.

[2] "Gangsters" had become a national hit by July 1979, and had prompted interest in the Selecter, so Davies chose to create an actual band with the name, with a sound similar to the Specials.

[3] One biography stated that, "at the time Coventry had various reggae, punk and soul bands on the go, which proved to be rich pickings for anyone wishing to create the 2 Tone sound.

[4] "Taking a folkie risk like their confreres the Specials, they honor their undercapitalized roots by emulating the two-track sound of the cult hits they love.

[4] Overall, the album is tense and trebly,[8] and displays a mix of punk rock, ska and reggae with raw vocals and politically conscious lyrics.

"[11] The magazine stated that the playing "hops along," especially with the sporadic horn section, and wrote that it is Black, "shining with enormous vocal talent," who "continually provides the spark.

"[12] The album's title song directly references "what was going on socially at that time,"[13] while "They Make Me Mad" attacks "the divisive rhetoric of the privileged.

[16] The album cover design is credited to "Teflon" Sims and David Storey, with photography by Rick Mann, and depicts Steve Eaton.

[4] During the tour, the band witnessed the racism and violence that had started to become more prominent in audiences for 2 Tone performances; 2-tone.info states that "there was matter of racists attending the gigs.

Why racists would listen to ska or reggae is a mystery in itself and is all the more bizarre that they should attend a Selecter gig where, of the 7 members of the band, only Neol Davis was white.

[4] As was also the case for the Specials, Chrysalis, 2-Tone's parent company, were hoping to give the band some success in the United States, organising a coast-to-coast tour, preceding with a re-release of "On My Radio".

However, audiences were mostly unaware of the band; and Black later stated "There were small groups of people on the west and east coast who knew who we were but there was this huge big bit in the middle [of the US] who were completely gob-smacked by us".

"[24] In The Great Rock Discography, Martin C. Strong called the album an "effervescent companion piece to The Specials' more radical debut" and singling out the cover versions as the best tracks.

[19] Helen G of The F-Word praised the album for "having everything," complimenting the "heady brew of punk, ska and reggae music, politically conscious lyrics and the raw, passionate vocals.

[25] Music journalist Simon Reynolds lists it as one of the five most important albums of "2-Tone and the Ska Resurrection" in his 2005 book Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984.

[28] The Selecter explored similar themes to Too Much Pressure on their twelfth studio album Made in Britain (2012),[29] which contains a re-recording of "They Make Me Mad", whose lyrics were said by Helen G to "remain relevant" in 2012.

Their relationship with 2 Tone Records was disintegrating, who were publishing merchandise without the band's consent (Davies once commented: "There is a hell of a lot of money being made, supposedly in our names, but where's it all going?

"[30] However, Black remains happy with the album's themes, reflecting in 2016 that the Selecter's intents never changed in the ensuing years "because no tectonic plates have really moved as far as we’re concerned.

In addition to performing the full record, the group also played "an extended encore of hits and live favourites from across The Selecter’s extensive 35-year spanning back catalogue," including "On My Radio" and material from their latest, critically successful album String Theory (2013).