Musically, the sound of
Liquid Skin has been described as
blues rock, rooted in
American blues and
folk, with elements of
art rock and
psychedelic music. It has been compared to the work of
Pearl Jam (specifically their 1996 album
No Code),
Beck, and
the Grateful Dead. The album's title went through multiple names – ''God's Big Spaceship
and Touching Up
– before settling on Liquid Skin'', which was inspired by a product they had found while in the United States. Ball described it as a "party record", with the "general theme" being "how many different ways we can play the same song in four minutes". It is a
delta blues song that opens with
Ken Nelson misquoting
the opening line from
Pink Floyd's
The Wall (1979), followed by a loud bassline. "Revolutionary Kind" sees the band mix
country and
techno, recalling the work of
Alabama 3. Gray wrote the song in a house on Ash Grove in Leeds; when they were recording it, the hall they were tracking in would burn down frequently. "Bring It On", the name of which alludes to the band's debut, includes a reference to that album's opening song, "Get Miles". It ends with a
raga rock coda; the song was written around the same time as "Tijuana Lady" (from
Bring It On), though was abandoned and left off their debut. "Las Vegas Dealer" begins as a
psychedelic piece and vocal harmonies in the vein of
the Moody Blues, before incorporating
Eastern rhythms. Ball said it was written about a drunken night while in
Las Vegas,
Nevada, with
Nuno Bettencourt's father. "We Haven't Turned Around" features cellos; it originally began under the title "Canderel" with a different chorus section. "Rhythm & Blues Alibi" was written by Ball while attending university; Ottewell saw it as "taking the piss out of R&B music" and "the band and probably me, particularly!". Ball was playing guitar with a Zoom Sampletrak
sampler, when Gray suggested using some of the parts from it as the song's bridge section. Gray described the song as being a dig at a lot of "landfill RnB in the late-90s, but we were also saying that we were dicks appropriating black culture". "California" is a slow-building song that incorporates
droning, and switches to a
boogie; throughout this, the song details escaping California. The closing track, "Devil Will Ride", uses a
vocoder and
marching band horns, concluding with a
Beatlesque fadeout. ==Release==