The album features long minimal, droning compositions created from heavily treated guitar, horn, flute, piano, and other classical instruments.

The second track, "Requiem for Dying Mothers, Part 2", features a sample from the final scene of Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker, where the character Monkey pushes a glass across a table by way of telekinesis as a dog whines and a train whistle blows in the distance.

The track "Gasfarming" includes a brief sample of a telephone dialing to Big Ed Hurley's voice (Everett McGill) the owner of Big Ed's Gas Farm from the 1990's television series Twin Peaks.

Thom Jurek, writing for AllMusic, stated: There is a progression in all the music here, but it is so subtle, so quiet and un-intrusive, the listener would have to pay very careful attention to everything that is happening.

[3]The music review online magazine Pitchfork placed The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid at number 187 on its list of top 200 albums of the 2000s.