[1] The album brings with it a fresh lineup in the form of Daniel DeJesus in place of Sarah Bowman in second chair and Catie D'Amica replacing Jonathon Tebeest on drums and percussion.

[3] The album revolves around a fantastical theme that explores subject matter such as the New Netherland settlements, Colonial Federalism, feral children, the Anti-Rent Wars of 1844, Early American portraiture, and the prehistoric Mound Builder giants of Illinois and Ohio.

Musically, the album's sonical landscape has been "stripped down"[7] compared to the band's last few offerings, returning to the atmosphere of Rasputina's first studio LP Thanks for the Ether.

[11] Bonus tracks Ned Raggett of Allmusic commented "Released in a year when Joanna Newsom made her own most sprawling artistic statement to date, it's become all the easier to see how Creager and Rasputina served as a touchstone for many who followed.

The easy entry point that the listener is afforded into the material here is refreshing and [it] could use several more moments that are this emotionally accessible... but her obsessive eye for nuance and oddity can just as often have the effect of trapping her subjects under glass rather than figuring out what makes them tick.