[1] The group was founded in 2008,[2] when school friends Matt Correia and Spencer Dunham met Pedrum Siadatian while working together at Amoeba Records in Los Angeles.

One reviewer commented that "their sound is steeped in the pop sensibilities of The Zombies, The Kinks and The Yardbirds, laced with Northern Soul, lo-fi funk and the ever-enduring influence of Arthur Lee and Love".

[9] The album has been described as "an effortlessly wistful batch of starry-eyed, minor-key beauties that gently ruminate on the usual young-guy subjects: sex, freedom, the ways the former can interfere with the latter and vice versa".

[10] In October 2012, NPR's World Café featured two songs of Allah-Las, noting that "the music captures the carefree, breezy sounds of California... dreamy romanticism [with] a vibe that can feel both joyous and melancholy".

[19] Exclaim's Allie Gregory dubbed the album "the perfect atmospheric soundtrack for a backyard party with boozy beverages and adult tokeables",[13] whereas Clash Magazine's Jack Docherty labeled it "a record where the sunshine is too few and far between.

[21] Cristian Garcia of mxdwn.com called the album "...creative and fresh",[22] while Darryl Sterdan of Tinnitist said, "...Zuma 85 signals the start of a new era for Allah-Las, and finds the band reinventing itself in defiance of the algorithmic categorization and robotic sterility.