After nearly a year of relentless touring for their brilliant debut LP, The Repulsion Box, supporting everyone from Morrissey to Bright Eyes, and hitting cities as varied as Eugene, OR and Moscow, Russia, Glasgow’s Sons and Daughters decided to begin their next album. While other bands might have splintered under the pressure of their intense touring commitments, needing substantial time off to regroup, Sons and Daughters began to work on their sophomore effort the only way they knew how – as an exercise in extremes. In the summer of 2006, Sons and Daughters holed up in a house in the village of Adfern on the west coast of Scotland. They had no television, no telephones, and worked on new songs in a converted barn for eight hours every day. “We wrote and practiced all day and played poker and got drunk at night. We were committed to writing a great pop record,” says Adele Bethel. The motivation was clearer than ever, despite the fatigue that lingered from promoting their last record. Says Bethel, “We all love Blondie and The Smiths; we wanted to embrace that and not repeat what we had done before. Then we thought: who would be the perfect producer for a record like this?”

Domino’s Laurence Bell suggested Bernard Butler, and all being huge Suede fans, the band agreed. This Gift bears out that Butler and Sons and Daughters make a winning combination, although it didn’t always feel like that at the time of recording. “He’s very, very tough,” says Scott Paterson. “He doesn’t sugar-coat anything and we had a lot of clashes. Then we heard the playbacks of the songs and it all began to make sense.” Adds Adele: “At first it was his way or no way. Then Scott got talking to him about Joe Meek and Bert Jansch and we started to click.”