So, when it came time to write Ultimate Success Today, I was reminded of that first urgency and how it was an inverse of my current grapple with how terribly ill I've been feeling lately.

Was that sick feeling colouring how I felt about the state of the world or was it the other way around?The record was conceived, in his words, as "possible valediction of some confusingly loud five-act play", as well as a "mile marker" of the band's first decade together.

And finding people to come collaborate was kind of piecemeal.The resulting sessions included contributions from Nandi Rose Plunkett, alto saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc, clarinetist Izaak Mills, and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm.

[12] Guitarist Greg Ahee described the album as their "nature" record, and was inspired by jazz fusion musician Bennie Maupin's debut The Jewel in the Lotus.

[5] American Songwriter found Casey's lyrics to be "underscored" by "the chaos that reigns beneath the surface — a mix of brass, strings and atmospheric effects", resulting in a sound that it describes as being "both intimidating and unyielding".

[13] According to Alexis Petridis, "the album's deployment of free jazz players, [...] is subtly and smartly done, their contributions driving the tracks along, never descending to the kind of skronky din that rock bands indulge in when they want to let listeners know their tastes extend to Ornette Coleman or Albert Ayler.

"[3] The opening track "Day Without End" has been described as "an unholy mesh of The Doors' dire delivery and the turgid tones of the Stooges, Captain Beefheart and Public Image.

"[14] Petridis notes that "Processed by the Boys" sounds closer to "stadium rock" than post-punk,[3] while MusicOMH finds Ahee's guitarwork on the track to be no wave-inspired.

[4] The track's "impressively snappy dynamic and rhythmical shifts" are also present on "Tranquilizer",[3] which has been described as being reminiscent of David Bowie's Blackstar in its "horrifying, Evil Dead atmospherics [...] alternat[ing] between eerie jazz and lightning-hot noise rock".

The penultimate "anthemic"[15] track "Bridge & Crown" has been described as the album's "emotional centerpiece",[4] on which Casey's vocals sound like "a lonely crooner at the end of time.

[17] There is darkness in the poetry of Ultimate Success Today, [...] The theme of things ending, above all human existence, is present and reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

Ultimate Success Today's themes were mainly inspired by Casey's feelings on his own mortality, spurred by his aforementioned illness which "was a combination of coming off tour and having [his] body fall apart" in the midst of a mid-life crisis.

"[19] He has also spoken of his own father's death prior to starting the band as an influence on the album's lyrics:[19] People say it gets less hurtful or frightening or sad, but that’s not really true – it just changes colour and form.

Those can be about that, and then I can move on.Despite being written a year prior, several sources have identified parallels between the album's lyrics and the state of the world at large at the time of its release, with many describing them as being apocalyptic in nature.

[8][17][19][20] Summarizing the album as a whole as "predictive texts for a world in chaos", Alexis Petridis writes:[3] [T]here are visions of cities erupting in violence, of "shut-ins" panicking, of populations reliant on "built-up respirators" for survival.

[21] "The idea of a day that never ends is quite disturbing to me," Casey said in an interview with The Fader, "[The song is] trying to place all the events in the present, whereas in the past and on previous records, it has been a lot of looking back nostalgically, but sometimes bitterly."

[21] "Processed by the Boys" was written about Donald Trump's use of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and its subsequent evolution from "this kind of bizarre pseudo-army to [...] a full-fledged army.

[23] "The Aphorist" is about the creative process and "meaning" in art as opposed to its "obscurity", the lyrics a result of Casey struggling to respond to the state of the U.S. "without falling into slogans".

I don't have to have that hanging over my head.”[19] Petridis notes that its lyrics alternate between "faint optimism" and "something darker and dejected",[3] while Slant Magazine finds it to contain the album's "only semblance of hope, as [...] a basic acknowledgement of existence—of having been alive and leaving a trace of that presence.

[31][32] Its music video, directed by David Allen and Nathan Faustyn, was inspired by a YouTube clip titled "Puppet trolling viewer during the concert live on Brazilian TV" that the band were obsessed with.

[44][45] It consists of videos for each track on the album (including the ones for the aforementioned singles) edited together into a short film, directed by Dominic Ciccodicola, David Allen, Nathan Faustyn, Joseph Howard, Trevor Naud, Ashley Armitage, Yoonha Park, and Jeremy Franchi.

[45][47] Starting from July 21, the band released to YouTube the aforementioned videos for "June 21",[48] "Day Without End", "I Am You Now",[49] "The Aphorist",[50] "Tranquilizer" and "Modern Business Hymns" together,[51] and finally "Bridge & Crown" in the given order.

"[4] In a similarly perfect score review, NARC Magazine called the album "a rich and still strikingly relevant work", praising Casey's lyrics on it as being his "career best".

"[55] In a review for AllMusic, Mark Deming suggests that the album "sounds timely in 2020, but this music would be a smart, compelling accompaniment for staring into the abyss as it begins to look back, no matter what the year.

"[60] Under the Radar praised the subtler instrumentation offered on the record in comparison to past releases, finding that the songs "are allowed to breathe and build more, taking surprising twists and turns is a highly satisfying way."

The review also called Scott Davidson "the real star of the show here, writing expressive walking basslines on tracks such as the Half Waif featuring 'June 21' or the terrific 'Michigan Hammers.

"[16] Uncut found many of the more "cacophonous" tracks such as "Michigan Hammers", "Modern Business Hymns" and "I Am You Now" to be similar to their previous efforts, calling the album "[d]isjointed sounds and anger in extremis".