[5] Forest for the Trees' Carl Stephenson co-wrote and co-produced Beck's 1993 song "Loser".

[1] However, his health condition improved afterward and they thought that releasing the album would help him deal financially and emotionally with the healing process.

[6] Kembrew McLeod of AllMusic says, "Forest for the Trees tries to be everything at once and ends up being nothing at all, pleasing only those who favor 'interesting in theory' collage-oriented music over some semblance of catchy songs.

"[7] Meanwhile, James Lien of CMJ New Music Report called Carl Stephenson "one of the key architects of the zeitgeist of the times.

"[10] He said, "Stephenson creates a musical world where hip-hop beats blend with bagpipes and B-movie sitars, acoustic folk guitar strums, found vocal samples and hazy, dazed stoner raps.