After the released of the acclaimed and succesfully "Rattlesnakes" the previous year, "Easy Pieces" became the band's fastest-selling album, selling more in its first two weeks than Rattlesnakes had managed in a whole year. It was also their highest charting album in the UK, peaking at number 5 propelled by the three singles which managed to reach the UK top 40 singles. However, despite Easy Pieces' commercial success, the reception from critics was lukewarm and the band themselves were unhappy with the end result.
Cole himself would later say, "It strikes me that there's something really fresh on the first album which has been dragged onto the second album, and the freshness is not there and something to replace the freshness is not there either".
Following promotion for Rattlesnakes, the band went back into the studio with Paul Hardiman again to record the follow-up. However, the relaxed atmosphere that had surrounded the recording of the first record was not replicated – Polydor had left the group alone while recording Rattlesnakes but now the band were well known and commercially successful, they took a more active interest and soon dismissed Hardiman, after the initial recording sessions did not immediately prove fruitful. Experienced producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, were drafted in to replace him. Unlike Hardiman, who had taken a hands-off approach, Langer and Winstanley made more suggestions during the recording process, which the Commotions didn't always agree with. Langer asked Cole to control the vibrato in his voice, which Cole had no idea how to do as it was his natural way of singing, and as a result he became self-conscious about his singing.
Cole felt that they had been pushed into making a second record too quickly: "We didn't give ourselves time to step back and think. The record company was telling us 'this is your moment and you must take it now' – which is crap. People would have waited for us. We were insecure so we made the record too soon and the record company fired Paul Hardiman."
The band intended Easy Pieces to be more accessible than Rattlesnakes, with Cole saying, "We wanted the sound to be warmer, more luscious". He described the lead single "Brand New Friend" as being "about a character who's in a fairly pitiful position of being aware that he's not as happy as he once was, but not being sure what to do about it. He's also aware that he's verging on self-pity, which is also quite ridiculous. So it's quite funny too. He's aware it's a little cry for help." Cole would later disown some of his writing on the album, stating in 1990, "There are two terrible songs on Easy Pieces, one called "Grace" and another called "Minor Character" which is literally the worst lyric ever written.
Unlike the widespread praise for Rattlesnakes, the reception for Easy Pieces was noticeably cooler by saying the songs sound second-hand , Cole's lyrics sound as though they were written to fit the metre rather than to say anything. Others observed that the solid production swells to leave no white space, and individually many of the tracks are opalescent, only Spint was far more enthusiastic saying: the promise reflected on their impressive debut album Rattlesnakes has been kept and the band wrote clean, crisp, guitar-oriented pop songs with addictive hook lines.
