Is This What You Want? reviews. It peaked at number 29 on Canada's "RPM" 100, but failed to achieve commercial success in Britain (where it failed to chart) and America. Following the completion of the White Album, Harrison and Lomax went to Los Angeles to carry out further work on "Is This What You Want?" The sessions there took place at Sound Recorders Studio from 20 October to 11 November. Seven songs were recorded at this time, six of which were used for the album: "Is This What You Want?", "Speak to Me", "Take My Word", "Baby You're a Lover", "How Can You Say Goodbye"
What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World Boston Globe" described the album as one of the band's "most enjoyable and lively efforts in recent memory", "The New York Times" noted that "What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World" "strikes a note of pop concision and maturity, building on what worked on ‘The King Is Dead.’ Lyrically, there are fewer thistles and minarets and palanquins—and, musically, less digressive excess—than once made up the Decemberists’ trademark style." Jeremy Larson of Pitchfork Media was a detractor, bemoaning the album as "overlong and under-ambitious", though appreciating that listeners "start to see Meloy himself more than ever". Larson also wrote highly