Although Lynne, as founder of Electric Light Orchestra and co-founder of The Traveling Wilburys, has an expansive musical background, Spektor did not know of his work when she originally met him.

[4] The album's first single, "Laughing With", was uploaded to Spektor's MySpace page on May 8, 2009, and was released as a digital download on May 18 in the United States and parts of Europe, along with the b-side "Blue Lips".

[21] Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone said "Laughing With" is a song that "ends collapsing in an existential freakout over a soft beat and weeping cello".

[22] Emily MacKay of NME said "Human of the Year" has "a typically Spektorian conceit", and that Spektor's "remarkable, gutsy voice vaults to the rafters of heartbreak".

[23] James Skinner of Drowned in Sound called "Genius Next Door" a "spiralling Gothic narrative that comes on with all the otherworldly beauty of a Haruki Murakami story".

[24] Max Neibaur of Frequency said that, in "Man of a Thousand Faces", the "pathos of the lyrics is still strong enough to make the Incredible Hulk tear up a bit".

[26] Lewis of the Cord Weekly said: "Spektor delivers gloomy tales of turmoil, complemented by slow, haunting piano notes that could just as easily accompany a horror film.

"[25] In a similar vein, during a June 24, 2009, interview, Spektor remarked that: "I mean, in this book, it's music criticism from the 19th century, and they're ripping Tchaikovsky a new asshole, but the thing that really gets me is that it's written so beautifully.