Sharon O' Connell wrote in Time Out London,[6] October 2004: "...this is a thing of impossible beauty -- sweet, fierce, fragile, funny, heavy, strangely skewed and independently-minded.

It's Grandaddy, Elliot Smith, Queens of the Stone Age, Swell, the glitchy side of Sparklehorse, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Tortoise, kissed by neo-classical grace and grazed by white noise.

Eden Parke, writing for Uncut,[8] November 2004, gave the album a 4/5: "Kesler's softly spoken vocals provide a focus around which his songs blossom in an often euphoric fashion, and the inspired use of strings and toy pianos to flesh out the sound is never overstretched.

Ian Fletcher, The Crack, October 2004: "Initially washing over you, yet creating deeply ingrained strains as it goes, this 2nd long-player from San Franciscan trio Thee More Shallows slowly but surely slices its way under the skin.

Chavo Fraser, Jason Gonzales, Dee Kesler, producer Tadas Kisielius and their assisting cast of embellishers have made a wonderful album for those who appreciate the fine art of kitchen sink pop, marking Thee More Shallows as a band full of the promise to do a bit of groundbreaking in their time."