The album's opener, "Let Them All Talk", evokes 1960s Motown through the use of brass instrumentation. In the lyrics, which serve as a reminder that time is lost as it passes, the narrator has lost his girlfriend and all hope for the future. The theme that "talk" is "cheap and meaningless" is resonated by the horns. Hinton argues that the "fa-fa-fa" section's echo of Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" (1977) foreshadows the rest of the album's impulse to inflict violence. "Everyday I Write the Book" has a retro feel in its lyrics and R&B musical style. AllMusic's Mark Deming summarised: "Both lyrically and melodically, the song suggested an updated variant on classic '60s soul, with the influence of Smokey Robinson peeking through Costello's extended literary metaphor in yet another look at the complexities of romance." Through heavy wordplay, the song concerns the breakdown of a relationship but the author turns to his pen and paper as a way to envision a better connection; he is already working on a sequel in which he wins her back. With its relaxed vocal, the song's lack of a happy ending is juxtaposed with a reflective and humorous tone. Deming said its theme is that "love doesn't last, but it's not bad for as long as it chooses to stick around". The album takes its title from a line in "The Greatest Thing". With lyrics describing love as a type of fantasy in a unique language, Costello uses the phrase "punching the clock" for the narrator as an expression of starting his work shift or stopping the passage of time in order to find a new lover who will "take his breath away" following a failed marriage. Nevertheless, the song clears the notion that not all marriages turn out this way, resulting in an endless cycle of "punching the clock". The song's music is uplifting; Perone deems its arrangement resembles Men at Work and remarks that it is closest in style to the new wave pop sound of the day. "The Element Within Her" provides a look at human relationships that idolises the woman. With Beatle-like harmonies, the song's title is, in Hinton's words, "a weird sexual pun on [the narrator's] girlfriend's electric heater: the man is a frigid partner here". Perone opines that Costello's playing of both acoustic and electric guitar shows off his skills as an instrumentalist. In "Love Went Mad", the woman