[1] Writing and rehearsing the songs for the album took eight to nine months, although half of this time was also spent finding a replacement for guitar player Jim Martin, who had been fired from the band following the release of Angel Dust in 1992.

[1][2] The recording session took roughly three months, for which the band hired producer Andy Wallace, who had previously worked with Sonic Youth, Nirvana and Slayer.

Bottum claimed the combination of Wallace and Spruance as two new influences helped to create "a real up-in-the-air, what the fuck is gonna happen kind of feel" while recording.

[14] In reviewing King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime, Rolling Stone magazine described "Ricochet" as being one of the album's "best cuts", calling it "a portentous anthem" comparable to their 1990 single "Epic".

[18] Writing for Record Collector, Alun Hamnett picked out the song's simple arrangement, calling it a "matchless slab of melodic rock which despite [its] obvious pith, benefit[s] from a welcoming, sumptuous sound".