According to Andrew Bird, the album was written to accompany the central track, saying, "I had this song 'Pulaski at Night' that was fresh and ready to go.

PopMatters wrote that the music was, "raw, sparse, experimental, and beautiful," while simultaneously criticizing it for being stylistically too similar to previous works, and unadventurous.

[7] Similarly, Consequence of Sound remarked that, "there’s nothing on Pulaski that doesn’t harken directly to some point of Bird’s recent career."

Beyond the musical content, the album was praised for its unique structure, with the title track being surrounded on both sides by ethereal instrumentals.

Bird places the title track in the middle of the seven-song EP and frames it with an instrumental score."