The band briefly stayed at frontman Jesse F. Keeler's farm outside Toronto and experimented with ideas, slowly figuring out the direction of a new record.

[5] The band hired producer Eric Valentine, impressed with his diverse production credits including Smash Mouth, Third Eye Blind and Queens of the Stone Age.

Is Now is based on black-and-white posters displayed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono that read "WAR IS OVER!

If You Want It",[13] part of a campaign launched ahead of Lennon and Ono's 1971 single "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)".

Clash Magazine praised the band's progression away from the sound of their first two records believing that the album found "them actually enjoying the process of writing and experimenting with the potent formula they concocted back at the start of the millennium.

"[16] Many praised the band's influence from classic rock and heavy metal drawing comparisons to David Bowie, Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses and Black Sabbath.

"[18] In a negative review, Leah B. Levinson of Tiny Mix Tapes stated that "the shallow cynicism and apathy that animates so many of its songs are under-interrogated by its writers, instead finding form as a pessimist's non-committal, inconclusive pouting."