The album has a decidedly over-the-top "goofy" feel to it, with lots of zippy synths and bouncy basslines. The only song to break from this is the closing track Daybreaker Icebreaker, which is slightly more akin to a "chillout" tune. Smal Nästa is a bit of a contrast to other darker sounding Jackal albums, but still in line with his style overall. The album was originally going to be titled "Heavy Rain," but the name was changed to sound less serious. "Smal Nästa" translates to "slim next" in Swedish. Renard stated that, originally, he was trying to find a proper translation for "Slimy Bastard" in Swedish using a translation dictionary, but in the end settled for a bit of a nonsense title and chose words he liked the look of. Renard has affectionately referred to the album as "Smell Nasty" a few times.