[1] The album artwork is a still image from avant-garde cut-out animation film, Heaven and Earth Magic (1962), by beatnik artist and polymath Harry Smith.

"[8] The Skinny's Duncan Harman said that the album "represents an awareness of legacy, and the importance of not pissing all over it; to that extent, it's an essential addition to canon.

"[16] Drowned in Sound reviewer Dom Gourlay called Slowdive a "majestic return that doesn't just fill in the gaps, but points unflinchingly towards future horizons.

"[17] Sean T. Collins of Pitchfork said that the album "offers maximum-volume shoegaze too, better than the band ever has before",[13] and Cam Lindsay of Exclaim!

wrote that it "certainly was a long wait, but finally Slowdive have given us the album that we have been dreaming about for the last 22 years.