though home was originally regarded as a lo-fi band due to its primitive recording techniques, its releases starting with "ix" have largely featured a cleaner sound highlighted by guitars and various electronic keyboards. in reviewing "ix", "the village voice" observed that home's sound resembles bands from "the late '80s (sebadoh, grifters) and mid-70s (devo, faust, david bowie) sprinkled with enough influences out of the bargain-bins (elton john, gong, david bowie) to push the hipster taste-envelope a smidgen closer to both prog-art and schmaltz-rock." that album received a 7-out-of-10 rating from "spin". a year later, describing the band's independent album "elf: gulf bore waltz", "the chicago tribune" wrote: "laboring in the rock 'n' roll hinterland of florida, the band home has developed a refreshingly scattershot sound that wanders erratically through folky balladry, prog rock, ragged pop, and unclassifiable experimentation. though somewhat reminiscent of indie rock obscurantists like pavement, home is both more ambitious and more consistently tuneful than many of its trendier peers."