III was the first full length Sebadoh album to feature Jason Loewenstein, who joined the band's two founding members Lou Barlow and Eric Gaffney in 1989, and debuted on the "Gimme Indie Rock" single earlier that year.

III features songwriting contributions from all three band members, with folky, melodic material by Barlow, open-tuned drone acoustic, and noisy hardcore rock by Gaffney, and songs that bridged the gap between those extremes by Loewenstein.

"[1] Along with Pavement's 1992 debut Slanted and Enchanted, III is considered one of the "cornerstones of 90s indie rock," and helped establish the lo-fi subgenre.

"[2] Upon its reissue in 2006, Brandon Stosuy of Pitchfork wrote that "even after taking a step back from III it still deserves every last bit of praise.

Sebadoh followed this effort with other fine moments; nowhere else did they so perfectly meld rickety folk, tin-can guitar, Shrimper-style ambiance, feedbacking "power sludge," eccentric compositional constructions, carcinogenic hooks, and poetic sincerity.