Malkmus had planned to create the record by himself, or through a smaller, local label, but eventually accepted the offer Matador made, and he released it.

Pre-release promotional CDs of the album exist under the working titles Jicks and Swedish Reggae.

Rob Sheffield, writing for Rolling Stone, compared the album favorably to the solo debuts by Television's Tom Verlaine and The Velvet Underground's Lou Reed, commenting: "Freed from the constraints of a band that didn't constrain him all that much, [Malkmus] grapples with the problem of what to do with all the empty spaces in the music".

[9] Similarly, Pitchfork reviewer Nick Mirov opined that Malkmus "has regained his songwriting stride, and he sounds more confident than he's been in a long time".

[8] The album appeared at number 28 in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 2001.