[4] Rather than using his 1954 telecaster, Lage recorded the album with a 1956 Gretsch Duo Jet owned by Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy, through a Gibson BR-6 amplifier.

[4][5] The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek stated "Of all the records in Lage's catalog, Love Hurts sounds like it was the most fun to make; in turn, it is a complete delight for listeners".

[6] On All About Jazz, Chris Mosey said "Julian Lage is a tremendously talented acoustic guitarist and by all accounts a polite, mild mannered kind of guy.

The cover picture of his album is of twenty used matches, which is thought to refer to his worries of becoming burnt-out after being hailed as a child prodigy then burdened with the lofty expectations of his admirers ... what he does best is to revisit and transform melancholy old pop numbers.

His two originals (“In Circles" and “Lullaby") are the most inclusive selections on the recording, borrowing from nearly everything else and signaling the guitarist’s compositional intent: to build musical bridges firmly rooted in place, but standing outside of time and genre.