Made in the Dark

The band wanted the record to sound less homemade. Songs Goddard had usually begun in Cubase on his laptop were tracked at The Strongroom with engineer Jonathan Digby, and One Pure Thought, Hold On and Shake a Fist were played live there and assembled afterwards. The Arturia Moog Modular plug-in runs through nearly every track, joined by a Doepfer modular, a Dave Smith Poly Evolver and old Casio and Yamaha keyboards. There was no single producer: any member could change a part. Martin said the result did not sound exactly live, but did not sound like it was recorded in a bedroom.

Its touchstones included Prince's Sign o' the Times, the Beatles' White Album, Black Dice and Will Oldham. Taylor said the album's romantic tone came partly from his recent marriage. The title song, he told NPR, is about being together apart while always on the road. Shake a Fist samples Todd Rundgren's spoken Sounds of the Studio passage, which Doyle used to recite at soundchecks. Clarke and Wallzo designed the sleeve, embossed on metallic copper card.

It reached four in Britain, topped the UK dance albums chart and went gold. Metacritic averaged 78 from 40 reviews, and Pitchfork placed it 23rd of 2008. Treble called it their most varied and accomplished set of songs so far. Robert Wyatt and the string quartet Geese reworked four of its songs for an EP later in 2008. Domino reissued it as a double gatefold LP and CD on 17 July 2026, with liner notes by Kate Hutchinson and a digital second disc of B-sides and rarities.