Lots of lo-fi experimentalism is thrown around here, from some ultra-distorted vocals to unexpected blurts of cheesy-sounding instruments, but there's far more unrealized potential...Sometimes there's an eerie psychedelic vibe that resembles
Pink Floyd (in their just post-
Syd Barrett days) as in the very beginning of the opening track, "Burning Kingdom..." Sometimes the genuine sorrow and hurt that would color the best of Smog's later work surfaces in close-to-formulated songs, like "Bad Investment." On others...the melodic and lyrical ideas are buried under gratuitous fuzziness, or are fragmentary... ~ Richie Unterberger