Containing references throughout to hip hop music and ending with a recital of the titles of the tracks on Run DMC's debut album, according to Green the song is about the difference "between being in love with something and being unhealthily addicted to it".

To promote the album Green embarked on his first live dates in 26 years, beginning with a low-key support slot ahead of the record's release at the Brixton Windmill on 7 January 2006.

"[12] Q said "engagingly rambling, there are snatches of all sorts of things here, from the Beach Boys' layered melancholy to Paul McCartney's jolly solo albums; rudimentary folk to Kraftwerk's glittering modernism...

"[10] The Observer said that "White Bread Black Beer marks a welcome return to the more specific intellectual concerns of his earlier lyrics, and a simultaneous rediscovery of the pure pop sensibility which made his later, more mainstream work so addictive.

"[7] Spin was also critical, describing the album as "wordy but somnambulant laptop-pop observations" and calling Green "more cryptic (and less substantial) than when he was making a name for himself in the '80s as Top 40's biggest Jacques Derrida fan".