The 1980s soul album was created after Costello's verbal derailment in a bar, in which he insulted Ray Charles and James Brown in equal measure in order to finally silence Stephen Stills. Unfortunately, the whole thing went public, which did not help his image. Instead of apologizing publicly, Costello recorded an extraordinary soul album. Soul here, however, means that Costello and the Attractions added a few soul melodies to their rock sound and otherwise played it hard.

The twenty songs on this album are all of the fast variety and, in keeping with the album title, are more about happiness and a good time, yet Costello still manages to incorporate his cynicism, anger and wry humor into the songs.