15. It was promoted with two UK tours, and a North American trek with Stereophonics. The first track that was written for their next album was "A Man Needs to Be Told", which vocalist Tim Burgess, guitarist Mark Collins and James Spencer made a demo of. Burgess sung over it in a falsetto, which he was inspired to do after listening to Nixon (2000) by Lambchop and After the Gold Rush (1970) by Neil Young. In June 2000, Collins visited Burgess at his place in Los Angeles, California to write material. The band had several discussions about him living there while the rest of them had remained in Manchester, and whether they would be able to make it work. Burgess wanted their music to find success in Los Angeles, which he kept in mind while working on songs for their next album. He planned out where it would be written, what it would be called and who would be picked to produce it. He explained that drugs were an impact on the process: "LA coke, lots of it, dealers at the house 24/7 [...] And the environment changed the sound, the sun flooded in, the shutters were open and the ideas were flowing". Burgess and Collins wrote together for two weeks, coming up with "Love Is the Key", "Right On" and "Love to You" in the process. When they were seeing the sights and driving along the freeways, they would be listening to the classic rock stations, playing the likes of Isaac Hayes and Sly and the Family Stone. On one occasion, "Be Thankful for What You Got" (1974) by William DeVaughn came on and the pair looked at each other, deciding that this was the type of song they wanted the next album to emulate. The pair then met with producer Danny Saber, who was a friend of Collins; when the Charlatans previously played the city, Saber and the band would always hang out. The trio made a version of "Love Is the Key", which they sent to the rest of the band and asked if they wanted to work with Saber. Recording Burgess said that while Us and Us Only received ample promotion, it was not the type of album their label had expected, and thus, decided not to tell them that the band were working on another in the meantime. A week before recording was due to