Band members Ryan Bassler and Eric Haugen felt that, far from making their own Pet Sounds, they compromised their perfectionism with budgetary concerns, technical and personal limitation.

Coupled with interpersonal conflicts and a simultaneous non-existent and hostile reception in their native Champaign, Illinois, LMP settled in Evanston, a suburb north of Chicago, in 1999.

[3][4] In a 2005 interview with Italian web magazine Indipop.it, Haugen said that A Century of Song was the band's attempt at "to explore a lot of different avenues of pop music and ultimately discover our own sound.

"[5] This was inspired from his and Bessler's interest in constructing personas, which they refer to as "fake authenticity", alongside new band names, recording locations, and imaginary personnel."

Haugen lists song poem producer Rodd Keith as an inspiration to the project as the breadth, along with limited time, meant that "the aim was simply to make a finished recording as quickly as possible, and then move on to the next.

After uploading the final song in 2001, they moved to other projects, which included EPs The New Body Language and Meeting Up and Making Friends, and their debut album Love Conquers Alda.

"[7] Much of the negative criticism was levied at the nature of the box set's release, with Greg Adams of Allmusic stating that it was disappointing "that more people won't hear it.