It is also the only Fleet Foxes album to feature drummer and backing vocalist Josh Tillman, who left the band in 2012 to pursue his solo career under the name Father John Misty.

Robin Pecknold had initially hoped that Fleet Foxes could've released their second album in 2009; however, the band's touring schedule had caused them some setbacks.

After their tour in support of the 2008 releases ended, Pecknold mentioned the possibility of starting to record new songs, but Josh Tillman, Fleet Foxes' drummer and co-song arranger, was scheduled to play Europe and North America all along the 2009-10 winter as part of his solo musical act.

In an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Pecknold admitted that his girlfriend of five years found the stress this album placed on their relationship too much, and ended things.

For Record Store Day on April 16, the band released a 12" double A-side single of the title track backed with "Grown Ocean" in the US and with "Battery Kinzie" in Europe.

[12] Larry Fitzmaurice of Pitchfork wrote that the album's "analytical and inquisitive nature never tips into self-indulgence" and that "amidst the chaos, the record showcases the band's expanded range and successful risk-taking, while retaining what so many people fell in love with about the group in the first place.

"[15] Andy Gill, writing in The Independent, felt that Fleet Foxes "manage to make giant strides creatively without jettisoning their core sound.

"[16] Robert Christgau, who was dismissive of the band's previous releases, gave the album a one-star honorable mention, indicating "a worthy effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well like," and declared it "darker and more socially conscious than either their escapist admirers or their ideological detractors are equipped to notice.