During the promotional cycle for their debut studio album Vehicles & Animals (2003), the band wrote material for its follow-up.

The album is a soft rock release with elements of electronic music, taking influence from the works of Coldplay, Doves and the Flaming Lips.

Athlete embarked on a headlining tour of the United Kingdom, prior to the release of the album's lead single "Wires" in January 2005.

Athlete released their debut studio album Vehicles & Animals in April 2003; it peaked at number 19 in the United Kingdom.

[2] The band promoted the album with three tours of the UK, and appearances at the T in the Park, Move, One Big Sunday and V Festivals, between February 2003 and January 2004.

[6] Victor Van Vugt spent two weeks with the band at their space, where they showed him all of the songs they had prepared and he gave them his feedback.

[16] The band would typically build a song from a chorus of verse section, written on either a guitar or a piano, adding electronic flourishes after demos had been made.

[15] Adam Peters arranged and conducted the string accompaniments on "Chances", "Wires" and "Street Map", which were performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra, led by David Juritz.

[17] "Half Light" continues the electronic sounds heard on Vehicles & Animals, with a chorus in the vein of Britpop acts from 1995 and a flute-led breakbeat section.

[31] A special edition was also released, which included the music video for "Wires", a making-of documentary on the album, and audio tracks recorded at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London.

[32] The cover artwork, designed by Richard Andrews and Gerard Saint, consists of an airplane seat, a radio, studio equipment, gas pumps and railings.

[46][47] "Half Light", "Tourist", "Wires" and "Twenty Four Hours" were included on Athlete's first compilation album Singles 01–10 in 2010.

[54] Matt Ashare of The Boston Phoenix noted that while Pott lacked Coldplay frontman Chris Martin's falsetto, he does have that band's "knack for mixing and matching simple guitar hooks with sullen piano chordings and yearning lyrics".

[57] AllMusic reviewer Johnny Loftus said a lot of the album "seems like an amalgam of other things, whether it's the Coldplay-ness of their ballads or the distinct Super Furry Animals influence that's been with Athlete all along [...] Tourist settles for complacent".

[17] LAS Magazine writer Josh Zanger thought the many comparisons were unjust "because, despite some general music similarities to any of these other groups, they have a unique sound".

[18] Rolling Stone reviewer Christian Hoard, on the other hand, said the band "manage swooning song-poetry and Coldplay karaoke over electronics-tinged arrangements that sound very pro form[ula]",[58] which The Independent's Andy Gil[59] and Maurice O'Brien of Hot Press echoed, with the latter adding that there was "little real invention on show here".

[60] Cross Rhythms writer Mike Rimmer was "not convinced that the shift into Coldplay territory is the most attractive move" as "most of the quirkiness that gave their first album its charm" had dissipated.

[50] The staff at Uncut held a similar sentiment, as the band plays "through 11 torpid ballads, drained of all their earlier quirks, seemingly laboratory-designed for those who find Keane too edgy".

[24] Pitchfork contributor Adam Moerder was dismissive of the album, saying that the band "abuse the soft verse/loud chorus trick to no end".

[19] Tourist topped the UK Albums Chart, selling 83,370 copies in its first week; it was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) a month after its release.