"alternative press" gave the album 3.5 out of 5 stars and said that it "features less avant-garde noodling and more straight-up youth". however, "the village voice" gave it a mixed review and said, "the new album isn't terrible, just dull". "kludge" included it on their list of best albums of 2002. robert christgau, who was somewhat unimpressed in his original "village voice" review, later said that ""murray"s song-soundscape fusion ... sounded strong" in retrospect.