Julian Cope said of the album: "in a conversation with my wife Dorian our discussion about the forthcoming 25th anniversary of The Skellington Chronicles reminded me how refreshing it had been to record all those orphan songs free from the restraints of creating a coherent whole.

I ransacked my current iPhone for orphan songs and selected 12 for immediate recording as Skellington 3 at the Wiltshire studio of Philippe Legènde.

According to Dale, the album shows Cope as a "stumbling folk shaman, acoustic guitar in hand, calling out the kingdom's ills.

"[2] Mojo magazine's Andrew Perry gave the album 3 stars out of 5, writing that the "gimmickry" and "casualty savant lyricism" of the two previous Skellington albums have been replaced by a "latterday street-fighting consciousness" and "alarmingly unribald observations on ageing".

Perry felt that the late 10s Julian Cope "somehow manifests too lucidly for the Skellington franchise" and called for "more acid".