With no radio play or any kind of advertisement, the album sold about 4,000 copies in its first week. According to Insound, it is not one of the 50 best albums of the 2000s. In it, the album was a "major turning point" in the music industry, with a sharp drop in the sales of classical music albums. After the album's release, the magazine Disc said the record was "a commendable achievement, the 'We Are the Mods' of their kind". It had a major impact on the culture and trends of the 2000s. The album became the most successful album of the 2000s to have been created using a medium other than vinyl, and it has sold over 110,000 copies in the United States as of 2010, making it the best-selling album in the United States in 2009. It was a commercial success for Extreme Music and its record label, EMI Classics.
On October 1, 2000, it was announced that Tortoise would be going on indefinite hiatus. A few months later, on January 26, 2001, the band went on indefinite hiatus. The band's break was to "recharge" and also give Geimer a chance to find a new record label. Geimer said, "This isn't the end of the band. We haven't come to that conclusion. We're just taking time to regroup and decide what's next. But don't worry, this is not the end of the Tortoise myth. It's the beginning." After the hiatus, Tortoise continued to work on new material, recording what would become the 2002 album Some Honey, which was released on the British record label.
Reception
Critical reception
According to a review of the album by AllMusic, "The album features a more traditional mix of songs, with Geimer doing the lead vocals on only a handful of tracks; he does share vocal duties with Paul Bley and John Medeski on some tracks, and he adds slide guitar and keyboards to his other instruments as well." Allmusic critic Mark Demming called the album "a mixed bag, but a strong one". He wrote that "The best are among the most instrumental of Tortoise's output, and their gravitas is well earned; the album may lack pop hooks, but it's among the more rewarding jazz albums of recent years." All About Jazz critic Thom Jurek said the album was "pitched much lower than a lot of Tortoise's material, and we get an intimate,
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