"[9] Dave Jennings of Melody Maker was more mixed in his review, commenting that the album, though "initially relaxing and refreshing", is "awfully low on the sort of obvious excitement we regular indie-rock consumers are conditioned to expect".

He described it as being "built from baroque acoustic guitar flourishes, hushed voices and downbeat, fragile sentiments" and noted the "clever musical and lyrical twists hidden away", but felt that "you need a hell of lot of patience to get through all the aggravating precious bits to the little glimmers of gold".

He picked "One At a Time" as the highlight, noting that it's "sung in tones of deep disgust, backed up with the kind of muscular, chopping chords resolutely resisted on the rest of the LP".

[10] Paul Moody of the NME was indifferent to much of the material, noting the same "world weary crooning [and] thesaurus robbery", as well as more of the "heart-strung guitars and winsome lyric[s] about life's injustices", as seen on Cake.

[14] Peter Holmes of Australia's Sydney Morning Herald described the album as "an inspired recording", which "jumps confidently from uneasy acoustic pop through chunky guitar revs and slow note picking".

Holmes added, "Shulman deserves praise for allowing the band to spray wide on the canvas; for an album to be all over the place yet strangely cohesive is no small feat.