[2] During a performance in Boston, Vance Joy explained that the song "My Kind of Man" included advice his uncle once gave him when he was young.

"[3] The album also includes the singles "From Afar" and "Riptide", previously released on Joy's debut EP God Loves You When You're Dancing.

Timothy Monger from AllMusic noted that the album is "built around the centerpiece of "Riptide" and that it "offers up a dozen or so additional songs in that familiar mold of romantic, introspective, acoustic folk-pop".

He felt that the album "focuses on gently picked lovelorn pleas and somewhat uninspired romantic phrasing" and commented that it "seems a bit too middle of the road to really distinguish him from the crowded pack of similar young bards.

"[4] Clash writer Jack Scourfield praised the album's "heartfelt honesty" that can "spread the youthful nostalgia adeptly across any generational gaps."