"Manhoo" have both been compared to Blur, a band influenced by Cardiacs. The latter, written by Poole, "has a skip in its step and a rumbling and forceful bassline that somehow couldn't be poppier if it was covered in glitter," and features a string arrangement written by Tim Smith. "Wireless" was described as one of the "most beautiful" tracks on the album, is Smith's re-imagining of Faust's song "Psalter", also known as 'Lauft... Heisst Das es Lauft Oder es Kommt Bald... Lauft', but performed primarily on piano and scissor-wielding percussive ensemble that ends with Smith reading a "bizarre aquatic-themed children's story." Jim and Jane Smith added snipping sounds with garden tools to the song. "Dirty Boy", which opens the second disc, is "perhaps the album's crowning achievement" according to Kitching, beginning with a guitar riff and alchemically transmuting that song over the course of its nearly nine minutes duration with "celestially ringing sounds" constructed by "innumerably overlaid strata of acoustic guitar and incredibly drawn out sustained vocals that when performed live had an undeniably consciousness-altering effect on all those present." "Quiet as a Mouse", described as a "weird piece", was described by Tim Smith as the sound of "just somebody who left the tape running when we were doing these orchestral bits." The band came across it "kind of accidentally" and enjoyed it enough to include it on the album. "Odd Even" is "an airy dip into baroque pop incorporating lush string arrangements." "Red Fire Coming Out Of His Gills" returns to the "aquatic fairy tale theme" of the end of "Wireless" and "turns it into a classically infused anthem that wouldn't be out of place as the soundtrack to a really strange animated children's TV show." "Foundling" was described as having "subdued beauty," and alongside "No Gold", return the album "once more to gentler Sea Nymphs territory, whilst "Nurses Whispering Verses", which takes its title from the Slapp Happy and Henry Cow song "In the Sickbay" from their album Desperate Straights (1975), is a "definitive" re-recording of one of the band's earliest songs, having originally been recorded and released twice for the band's first two albums, Toy World (1981) and The Seaside (1984), when it had become a firm favourite in the band's live performances at the time. Philip Whitehead of Sputnikmusic said it adds "an extra sense of urgency to the original and adding a whole new element