"[15] Pitchfork accorded the album a "Best New Music" designation, with reviewer Ian Cohen writing that the band had "made a slyly confident debut that mixes sparkling melodies with an undercurrent of sad bastard mopery".

Club called the band "sensitive and sublime",[10] while Robert Christgau of MSN Music said of them: "Not only do they have a sound, they have tunes, and the words bring both home.

"[1] Maddy Costa of The Guardian concluded that "anyone convinced that the C86 bands represent a nadir of tweeness will hate it – while anyone who thinks that Britpop and dance music ruined indie will fall hopelessly in love.

"[12] PopMatters' Matthew Fiander found the band overly derivative and felt that on the second half of the album, "the melodies sound a little too simple, the vocals almost anemic, and the songs take on a dreary-afternoon trudge.

[21] All tracks are written by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (Kip Berman, Kurt Feldman, Alex Naidus, and Peggy Wang)Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.