Noah and the Whale lead singer Charlie Fink set to work on the album in January of 2010, holed up in a synagogue in East London. Beginning with a few melodic fragments, a sketch for a 10-minute song that resembled Lou Reed's classic "Street Hassle," and a set of lyrics that were begun on a train from Wales to London, something special eventually came into focus, something markedly different from the songs the band had written before.