“That We Can Play was recorded with a single stereo Pro Tools track and “outboard, secondhand vintage synths and sequencers”.[2] Ford explained the process of making each song in an interview with XLR8R: “It’s almost like we just sit down with gear and are like, ‘Whoa, this sounds sweet,’ and then we’ll make a beat, and be like, ‘What if we do this?’ and something comes out and we move from there. Where it gets really complex—and you can’t be a slacker—is you have to inventorize all these tiny sounds and constantly be trying to fit all of these moving parts together and see what sticks—and it’s a lot of repetitive, careful-listening kind of work.”

The writing, recording and mixing of That We Can Play is rooted in 1980s power pop. On a technical level, according to Steve Shaw of Fact magazine, Games’s instrumentation includes everything expected in 1980’s music and is executed correctly: bass lines, strings, keytar and arpeggiators. Instead of merely reproducing the sound from that era, the band pushes the music into unfamiliar territory. According to Pitchfork Media’s Joe Colly, the EP has a nostalgic sound – due, in part, to the analog synths (“not just vintage but almost aged” instrumentation) and their “glitchy electro jams.””

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