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I've been meaning to listen to this debut in my quest to listen to the main Sparklehorse albums, expecting a brand of meandering slowcore like on It's a Wonderful Life, but instead I got a sort of slacker rock vaguely infused with a singer-songwriter vibe. That was because this album is the sole remnant of a time before Linkous' brush with death that left a crater bigger than usual in the singer's mind, which is hugely apparent in the amplification of introspection on subsequent releases, as opposed to slight strokes present here.

For starters, the entire album is slacker rock, as mentioned, which drags the lo-fi aesthetic alongside itself, but only in bare structure of the vocals. The instrumentations are as polished as their going to get, so if vocals that sound like they've been recorded through a tin can aren't your style, beware with this one.

Next thing that catches your eye almost instantly, is the beautiful songwriting. Mark Linkous has a sort of pseudo-poetic approach to writing, not really going to deep, but still dropping allegories with a dash of idiosyncrasy to it. I think it sports a good amount of having this easy-going momentum with a lot of space for the listener to go ham and take in the words how they wish.

I'm glad I was recommended this. Sure, if I'm being honest, the more rock oriented stuff I can live without. It's an honest move, but I'm not a big fan of the 90s geek/slacker genre for the most part, but most of the meat on this album is as delicious as it can get, and is worthy of actually getting into.