Musically, the album is stellar. Carla's vocal styling and virtuosity on the violin are more present than ever in most of the tracks. The intensity of her raspy female voice counterpoints Nils' growly angst ridden voice in a way that creates a sort of balance, especially during the song Phthisis.

There are several ambient moments in-between the songs on this album, unlike their first album. This immediately creates a new and different atmosphere for the album. The nature of the recordings gives us a sense of darkness, eccentricity, and of quietness within the noise of the music. Listen closely to these moments and you'll be glad you did, there's some interesting stuff going on here.

"Mankind is a plague," the central theme to the song Freedom Club, and quite possibly the central theme to the album, is lifted straight from the Unabomber Manifesto. In fact, this entire song, the "impossible dream of a math professor," is dedicated to the Unibomber, and his manifesto. There would seem to be many similarities between the Unibomber's message, and the Sleepytime message. At first glance, Sleepytime seems to be telling us that the Unibomber was misunderstood, had things to say that warranted further consideration, though it is not clear whether this was their intention or not.

The Unabomber's Manifesto is interesting, I have read it in its entirety. There's a lot there that can be talked about rationally and there is much that is insane as well. However, he did hit on a few points that should be considered more deeply.

This album is full of instant classic Sleepytime fodder, like The Creature, Baby Doctor, and Cockroach, and also equally full of some new sounds and ideas such as A Hymn to the Morning Star and Bring Back the Apocalypse. For Sleepytime fans like myself, it means months of listening and study, and that's good, for we need nothing more than strangeness and oddness to spur our creative minds. For Sleepytime virgins, it will be a bit of a strain, but the artfully minded should see its worth, and warm to it over time.