lang had started dating band member Leisha Hailey in 1996, a year before the album was recorded.

In a 2000 interview, Lang reflected "We [didn't] want to get involved in each other's art [...] My producing of the Murmurs was just to help them out because I had a studio and they needed tracks done.

[8] In a review for Allmusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave Pristine Smut a star rating of four out of five.

He praised producers Klein and Lang for steering the band towards "adult alternative rock" but said that the sound was "clean and pristine ... shined and polished and now ready for radio".

He said of Pristine Smut, "not since Liz Phair's "Flower", Janet's "Throb", and Madonna's Erotica has pop softcore attended so sweetly to the erogenous zones.