The album consists of covers of ten George and Ira Gershwin songs, bookended by passages from Rhapsody in Blue, along with two new songs completed from unfinished Gershwin fragments by Wilson and band member Scott Bennett.

[1] He and band member Paul Mertens picked the songs to record based on Wilson's vocal range, and which ones he thought he could sing "appropriately.

Since the Gershwin music was new material it was helpful to have the song in front of him so he could manipulate and move things around the way he wanted.

"[19] Rolling Stone described the album as "lovely, weird, subtly psychedelic symphonic lounge music.

[20] The new songs completed by Wilson and Bennett were also generally well-received; GQ described "Nothing But Love" as "suitably celestial".

Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, "On an album that feels like a posthumous competition, Mr. Wilson emerges the clear loser.

"[22] Michael Hann of The Guardian was particularly critical of the covers, describing the songs as being "reconfigured into pastiches of past Wilson classics.