By March 1998, Tortoise had sold 35,000 copies (8,000 LPs and 27,000 CDs).

[2] Trouser Press noted that "the beckoning warmth of the gently shifting rhythms ... make it easy to forget that there's nary a whit of guitar and only the briefest whiff of standard-issue keyboards in play.

"[9] In his review for AllMusic, Glenn Swan writes that Tortoise "share equal responsibility and trust in each other, pouring out a thick stew of meditative grooves, light production experiments, and rusty guitar-string ambience -- the likes of which have rarely sounded so approachable, but this is not to say the album is a sellout leap into commercialism.

There are a couple head scratchers and murky moments that fail to make much of an impact, but the quintet have spun such a rich web of mood and personality that any fall from grace barely changes altitude".

[3] All tracks are written by Tortoise (Dan Bitney, Bundy K. Brown, John Herndon, Douglas McCombs and John McEntire)Credits for Tortoise adapted from album liner notes.