I Become Small and Go

Founding members Sharky Laguana and Ian Sefchick, who had played in a high school band in Ohio, recruited a drummer and bass player through a want ad prior to the recording sessions.[7] John King, of the Dust Brothers and Creeper Lagoon's label, NickelBag, remixed "Empty Ships", "Dear Deadly", and "Wonderful Love".[8] In addition to employing sampling, the band used a long list of toy and found instruments.[9]

Trouser Press dismissed the album as "by-the-numbers contemporary alterna-pop for listeners who’ve never heard any."[15] The Washington Post wrote that "singer-guitarist Ian Sefchick and guitarist-keyboardist Sharky Laguana compose melancholy ballads that suggest such elegantly downbeat rock composers as Mark Eitzel ('Wonderful Love') and John Cale ('Second Chance')."[16] Spin determined that, "aesthetically, they're between indie-jangle and art-pop, floating in space between the Matadorian arch-intelligentsia and the miniaturists of the Elephant 6 collective."[14] The New York Times stated that the band "turns the kind of noise that sounds like it came from inside someone's brain into achingly pretty, unraveling ballads."[17]

Music Week said that "Creeper Lagoon track a thoughtful, textured path through My Bloody Valentine and Spacemen 3 territory."[18] The Boston Globe labeled the album "a pleasant blur of folk-pop melody, noisy guitar workouts, sampled strings, and Bulgarian chants."[19] The Oakland Tribune concluded that, "live, this band motors along nicely on charisma and an edgy attitude, but this record tries too hard to finesse weak material."[20] The Rocket deemed it "basic, ready-for-airplay smooth pop-rock."[9]

AllMusic opined that, "without King's distinctive touch, tracks like 'Tracy' and 'Second Chance' seem stunted and colorless."[11]