"[1] Rock critic Tris McCall wrote that the band is "firmly established as one of the best and hardest-working independent power-pop outfits in Northern California," with songs that "contain monster singalong hooks.

[4] In forming the new band, Skaught and Robertson decided on a "back-to-basics approach" based on "fundamental things we loved as listeners – songwriting, harmony, cool guitar parts and sounds.

[12] Unterberger likened Houses and Homes to British Invasion bands, with "tunes and the upper-register vocals [that] often echo some of the poppier Beatlesque groups of yore," praising the album's sensitive lyrics and "upbeat guitar-oriented pop/rock with a tinge of the bittersweet.

"[12] In contrast to the album's dominant pop sound were the dreamy instrumental "Next Door", and the tenser, Brian Eno-like ambient track "Murray Morgan's Last Dream".

[4] Skaught stated that writing all of the songs on Fixed Hearts was "liberating" and that the album benefited from his resulting confidence, and from the contributions of new bass player Aaron Rubin and producer Paul Tyler.

[16] Reviewing Fixed Hearts, the Aquarian Weekly cited the "general giddiness of the album", moving from a "nostalgic and swinging vibe" through songs with a "country-pop sound" and "pulsing drums", to the "peaceful" final tracks.

"[16] The review cited Skaught's "easy sincerity and the group's harmonic gifts," embracing a "Panglossian panoply of this period from when they were pups, cutting in country-pop, folk, and—heck yeah—a horns-laden opener with bits of Memphis soul.

[6] In Dirty Impound, Dennis Cook wrote, "Every tune practically shimmies out of the speakers, cool small details etched into ceaselessly ear-snagging melodies as sweet, gently yearning voices sing about love and the weather in ways that make both seem brand new.

"[19] According to Tris McCall of the Newark Star-Ledger, the album took a new and "more aggressive approach" in which "guitars still twinkle and shimmer, on occasion, but this time around, they growl, twist, stutter and snap, too."

Commenting on the diversity of the material and the ambition in pursuing different sounds and styles, Musoscribe critic Bill Kopp wrote "this album revels in those seemingly incompatible forms.

"[20] Tim Hiney at Dagger 'Zine wrote that songwriter Skaught "mines several decades of rock n’ roll and up comes up with another winner" [21] Boxer At Rest was recorded at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco by engineer Chris von Sneidern and produced by Doug Gillard.

"[22] Mike Baron wrote "If architecture is frozen music, the Blackbirds’ songs are fluid Frank Lloyd Wright or Charles Haertling, beautiful, inviting designs in which you want to live.

I think a lot of just living in Oakland has fed into these songs – Ghost Ship, homeless encampments in public spaces, venues closing, people on the margins pushed even further out.