"[6] While Lilys' musical style and approach shifts continually, the early recordings, the debut album In the Presence of Nothing and Eccsame the Photon Band were strongly influenced by My Bloody Valentine.

My Bloody Valentine frontman Kevin Shields is a huge fan of Heasley’s work, and in his book on MBV's Loveless for Continuum’s 33 1/3 series, writer Mike McGonigal called Lilys “the only post-MBV ‘shoegaze’ band that mattered.

[5] Andrew Unterberger of Stylus Magazine stated that the album was "not influenced by shoegazing as a genre, but rather as a principle", calling it "a masterpiece of mood, atmosphere and production.

"[11] Andrea Moed of CMJ New Music Monthly stated that on the album Heasley "sounds like David Gilmour's slightly less evil twin, numb but not quite comfortable".

[12] "The obscurely titled, Eccsame the Photon Band, is the Lilys' detour into spartan dream-pop," describes AllMusic, "Kurt Heasley's soft, distanced voice is ideally suited to the coldly atmospheric textures of tracks like the languorous opener "High Writer at Home" and the narcotically catchy 'The Hermit Crab', the album is still one of the Lilys' best.