It contains two bonus tracks, "Wavelength" and "Kingdom Hall", taken from the promotional album Van Morrison Live at the Roxy (1979), recorded on 26 November 1978.

"Kingdom Hall" harked back to his childhood in Belfast when he attended services with his mother, who at one time was a practising Jehovah's Witness.

[6] "Hungry For Your Love" appeared in the hit movie An Officer and a Gentleman (1982); on it, Morrison plays electric piano accompanied by Herbie Armstrong's acoustic guitar.

"Take it Where You Find It" ends the album and, according to Scott Floman, is a "quietly epic love letter to America that gets better and better as it goes along (the song is nearly 9 minutes long).

Simply put this song, which I'd rank among Van's all-time best, makes me want to lock arms with someone, anyone, and commence in a slowly swaying sing along..."[7] In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Lester Bangs gave a lukewarm assessment and called Wavelength "a very nice record.

"[14] In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine said "Wavelength essentially picks up where A Period of Transition left off, offering a focused, full-bodied alternative to that record's warmly fuzzy lack of direction.

"[8] Rob Sheffield wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) that the record was a "failed pop move" redeemed by its "worthy hit" title track, "which like many of his best songs expresses the profound spiritual yearning to listen to the radio".

With the success of Wavelength, Morrison assembled a band to promote it, similar in many ways to the abandoned Caledonia Soul Orchestra of It's Too Late to Stop Now fame.