The album saw the band explore various styles, similar to their double album Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me (1987), incorporating jangle pop with "Mint Car" and "Return", jazz with "Gone!" and mariachi with "The 13th". Robert Smith said the album title came from the fact that "Lyrically and musically, we cover more stuff than we have done in the past." The album exhibits jarring track placements, which contribute to the erratic and eclectic nature of the material, from lighter poppier songs to introspective, darker material.
The album saw various different changes towards the way the band approached recording their songs, such as the prominent use of computers and music software like Cubase, as well as live strings and brass instrumentation. It was also the first album released since drummer Boris Williams left the band for personal reasons in 1994 while guitarist Porl Thompson also left the group in 1993 to look after his children and joined English rock band Page and Plant.
Smith felt at the time that the previous line-up that had made Wish (1992) had "really done as much as we could. In some ways, in the back of my mind, I was slightly unsure as to what we could achieve, because we all knew each other so well. So the fact that it all kind of fell apart was a good thing. It was one of those haphazard, serendipitous things that worked in our favour."
However, Smith found it difficult to replace Boris Williams as he felt he was "a phenomenally good drummer," and found "replacing him was the most difficult thing. Not only did we have to find someone who would fit, who would get on with us and understand what the Cure is about, [he] also had to be as good a drummer as Boris, and it took months finding someone." Jason Cooper, formerly of the band My Life Story, replaced Williams on drums in 1995, answering to a Melody Maker advertisement made by the band anonymously with the brief "…famous group requires drummer – no metal heads…" Prior to Cooper's recruitment, other potential drummers included Ron Austin (The God Machine), Mark Price (All About Eve), and Louis Pavlou (Pink Turns Blue). All three drummers ultimately appeared on Wild Mood Swings. Perry Bamonte replaced Porl Thompson as the group's lead guitarist, leaving Roger O'Donnell, who returned in 1995 after leaving in 1990, to fulfil keyboard parts.
The album marked the first time the band did not work with David M. Allen as a producer since Japanese Whispers (1983). Robert Smith feared "that nothing new" would happen, had they worked with him again, saying: We've never really needed anyone to help on the creative or artistic side" and opted to get Steve Lyon, due to his younger age and his lack of "any preconceptions about the group.
The track "Club America", was inspired by a summer trip in 1994 that Smith had to New York with Perry Bamonte to watch the Football World Cup. After playing football with electronic band Depeche Mode and Daryl Bamonte, brother of Perry who would go on to work with the Cure shortly after, they all went clubbing. Smith admitted to playing "up to it then and awful lot more than I should have, and on the plane home, I wrote the song, because I was trying to, like, explain it away to myself. It's ironic, you know. I've had this photo taken with these celebrities, and I was there, and I did that, and I was full of self loathing! And that song is not anti-the girl in the "canary feather dress," it's actually anti-me because I was part of it." Rolling Stone noted Smith's put-on deeper voice on the song, citing borrowed "vocal tricks" from David Bowie and Iggy Pop, while also describing the sound as "upbeat" and that its sound invoked the "jaded thrills of nightclubbing in the American fun house." The song "Treasure" is inspired by the Christina Rossetti poem "Remember". Smith felt that the most personal songs on the album were "Want" and "Bare".
Initial recording began around the end of 1994, with just Robert Smith and Perry Bamonte. Simon Gallup fell ill shortly before the band scheduled to record and Boris Williams left the band the day before they began recording, and other members had yet to be found. The following year Roger O'Donnell and Jason Cooper would be hired.
The band settled in St. Catherine's Court, a Tudor house that was owned by actress Jane Seymour at the time, and were the first band to record there, since she began renting it out as a film set and recording studio since 1992. Other bands and musicians who would record there include Radiohead, for their acclaimed album OK Computer (1997), Robbie Williams and New Order. The band themselves would return there for the initial 1998 sessions of the follow up album Bloodflowers (2000).
Alongside many other changes to the band's working methods, they opted to use live brass instruments and string quartets in their songs. something that had previously not occurred in their recording processes. Strings would see use most notably on "This Is a Lie", which started out as a song based around an acoustic guitar played by Perry Bamonte. Smith recalled, "when I started playing around with it, it evolved into a string piece on the keyboard. I always had in mind that we'd be using strings, right from the very outset." He said recording in the house helped as "there was an instant atmosphere" for the string quartets. The band chose Audrey Riley's string quartet for the album as Smith felt she was "very aware of recording for contemporary pop" and that he had difficulties with previous musicians.
Smith said the band also used an Indian orchestra, a jazz quartet and Mexican trumpet players, and clarified "Everything on the album is real. In the past, I would have tried to keep it in the family, so to speak, and tried to attain a realistic sound through emulation or simulation. Now I feel much more comfortable having people around who are really good musicians."
The whole band were given much more input on the songs, allowing their ideas to be tested for inclusion "no matter how silly it was". Smith felt at the time, "It was the most fun I've ever had making a record, actually; it was brilliant. And that's why it took quite a long time, 'cause no one wanted it to stop. It was really good fun. We were paying for ourselves to live together in a house and make music, so why should we stop? Why should we go home?"
The mastering of the album was complete at Metropolis Studios, London with Robert Smith alongside Ian Cooper, who was suggested to Smith by producer Flood. This made for the first time Smith would be directly involved with the mastering process, which was due to his frustration towards being absent on the band's previous albums' mastering.
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