Daddy", and "Across This Antheap" indicated "completely fresh directions". Of these, "King for a Day" and "The Loving" were the album's "most overtly commercial songs". In the analysis of music writer Richard Walls: Commenting on the influence of the Beatles, Partridge said, "There is some Beatles in our music, but also some Captain Beefheart, some jazz bands, some others who were not necessarily musicians, like Miró, Walt Disney ... If people see only some Beatles, it is because they want to search only for some Fab Four." He acknowledged that it was their first work in which they were conscious that they had a record-buying audience, particularly in the US. External stresses affecting the group included their ongoing litigation against former manager Ian Reid. Colin Moulding remembered, "it was about to come to a head, and that was the worrying thing ... If we hadn't had a relatively successful record with Oranges and Lemons at that time, we would have been in deep shite". Production Setting and atmosphere Given an initial budget of £150,000 (equivalent to £ in ), rehearsals began on 16 May with Pat Mastelotto of Mr. Mister joining the group as session drummer. The band later recalled the rehearsals as especially grueling, but ultimately worthwhile. Recording lasted from 6 June to mid September at Ocean Way Studio One and Summa Music Group Studios. The basic tracks were handled at Ocean Way, while overdubs and mixing was at Summa. Trumpeter Mark Isham was hired for a few overdubs. Virgin threatened to drop the project several times due to the broken budget, which grew upwards to $250,000 ($ in ). A lot of the money went into studio personnel salaries, as well as the members' and their families' living expenses in Los Angeles. Fox was determined to treat the group with more patience than Rundgren had for Skylarking. The sessions ran more smoothly as a result, although the group struggled with his inexperience as a producer. About a quarter of the songs were recorded without a click track. Partridge praised Mastelotto for his work ethic: "he actually made little samples of sounds and things in his garage for us to use. He was really very committed to being one of the band". One such sample was the sound of a snare drum with its waveform cut off before the attack. Mastelotto said "Andy loved it so much that it