The album was produced by Andrew Williams and the band, and recorded on an 8-track.[4][5] It contains a cover of "MacArthur Park", with changed lyrics, as well as five unlisted songs.[6][7] It was the frontman Stew's intention to make an album that sounded like his memory of the less-segregated AM radio of the late 1960s.[8] The original lineup of the band broke up toward the end of the recording sessions.[9] "Birdcage" criticizes the Los Angeles Times music critic Robert Hilburn.[10]
Entertainment Weekly called the album "a wryly eccentric brand of white-bread pop laced with atmospheric keyboards, vibrant brass, and startling melodies."[12]Phoenix New Times deemed it "a kinky mix of art-rock gambol and earthy balladry."[15]Rolling Stone praised the "tart wit, sunshinedaydream melodicism and open-heart surge."[16]
Trouser Press labeled the album "a joyous album of off-kilter pure pop."[17] The Dayton Daily News stated: "Quirky yet infectious, this art-pop fits with Pere Ubu's relatively accessible albums circa 1990."[7]The San Diego Union-Tribune considered Post Minstrel Syndrome to be the best debut album of 1997.[14]
AllMusic wrote that the album "is like a breath of fresh air, a no-man's land where the politics and social vision of C.L.R. James meet Spike Lee in the home of Big Joe Turner's R&B, and primal, snaky rock & roll."[11]
Track listing
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Birdcage"
2.
"If You Would Have Traveled on the 93 North Today"
^Scribner, Sara (7 Mar 1998). "From Artful Noise to an Album with a Buzz; Mark Stewart leads the Negro Problem into pop turf". Calendar. Los Angeles Times. p. 1.
^Shipes, Gary (December 19, 1997). "Problem Solved". The Stuart News. p. D1.
^Tayler, Letta (24 Mar 1998). "Texas Rocks: Sounds of past and future rip through Austin". Newsday. p. B3.
^Morris, Chris (Sep 6, 1997). "Flag Waving". Billboard. Vol. 109, no. 36. pp. 89–90.
^ abUnderwood, Bob (29 Aug 1997). "Recordings in Brief". Go!. Dayton Daily News. p. 19.
^Wener, Ben (January 23, 1998). "What's in a Name?". Orange County Register. p. F43.
