Afraid of Sunlight

Its themes include the destructive side of celebrity. Gazpacho lampoons the Hollywood lifestyle and seems to refer to O. J. Simpson, whose trial was under way during the recording. Cannibal Surf Babe is a Beach Boys pastiche, the title track concerns self-destructive thrill-seekers such as James Dean, and King is about Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain and Michael Jackson. Beyond You is a Phil Spector-style tribute, mixed in mono.

Out of This World is dedicated to Donald Campbell, who was killed in 1967. The song later inspired the diver Bill Smith to search for the wreck, and the main fuselage of Campbell's Bluebird K7 was recovered from Coniston Water on 8 March 2001, with Hogarth and Rothery present. The album was written at the Racket Club between June and December 1994 and recorded between January and March 1995. Dave Meegan produced and mixed tracks one and four to eight, and Michael Brauer and Nick Davis also mixed. All tracks were mixed at Parr Street except Beautiful, mixed at Sony Music Studios in New York, and Cannibal Surf Babe, mixed at Rockfield. John Helmer shares the writing credit on five of the eight songs.

It came out in Europe on 24 June 1995 and in the United States on 4 July through El Dorado, a subsidiary of I.R.S. Records. It reached 16 in Britain and spent only three weeks on the chart, the shortest run of any of their studio albums at that point, but reached eight in the Netherlands. The only single, Beautiful, reached 29. Q listed it among its recordings of the year and described it as a 40-minute journey touching on Brian Wilson, Todd Rundgren and The Beatles. Prog placed it 90th among its top 100 prog albums. A 2019 deluxe edition added a Michael Hunter remix and a concert recorded at the Ahoy in Rotterdam on 29 September 1995.