[1] The album was recorded at two studios—Curves Studio and The Boat Studio—in the band's native Los Angeles, California, throughout 2010 and was produced by Tom Biller, who also shared mixing duties with Andrew Weatherall and Adam Samuels.

[10] The Weatherall mix also included "Jubilee", a previously unreleased track that was recorded for and subsequently left off The Fool, with plans to release it as a stand-alone single in 2011[11] that ultimately also fell through.

[12] Following the tour, the band also performed seven shows throughout the United States, beginning in St. Louis, Missouri on November 19 and concluding in Los Angeles, California on December 12.

Club noted the album "coasts instead on a humid, hazy, oozing pulse that's less ice age and more malarial swamp" and "with a torpid and feverish dreaminess".

"[17] Andrzej Lukowski, in his review in Drowned in Sound, said "there is an incredible level of detail and accomplishment to The Fool"[30] and Jenny Mulligan of Entertainment.ie described the "haunting atmosphere" of the album as "wholly intoxicating".

"[25] NME's Laura Snapes wrote "the dark purple rumble and hypnotic coo of their vocals swim along, dragging the listener beneath its beguiling surface into a swathe of subtle time changes and guitar prone to sudden swan dives into heart-stabbing gold arcs from oil painting-thick landscapes.