In an interview he posted on the same blog, he mentioned the new album's themes as being "mental states" and "chemicals".

According to an interview on James' new website for Maps, he said Turning the Mind would be darker, angrier and more electronic than his previous album We Can Create.

Every two weeks, James posted a song from Turning the Mind onto his MySpace page.

[citation needed] Turning the Mind was released on 28 September in Europe and 20 October in North America.

The album title track, "Turning the Mind", was featured in the 2010 British film Chatroom.