Unusual types of gramophone records Hi-Fi was a system of proprietary records and players designed for use in automobiles, utilizing a slower play speed and high stylus pressure. With their origin stretching back to the dawn of recorded sound at the turn of the 20th century, flexible recording media have been made from a variety of materials including foil, paper, and–in the 1950s–thin flexible vinyl known as flexi discs. Thin, flexible paper-based records were briefly popularized in the 1930s by Hit of the Week Records and Durium Records. "Melody Cards" were popular in the late 1950s. They took the form of an oversized rectangular postcard
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit are confessional, only they describe her material life and conflicted feelings acutely rather than dreamily, so that the songs occur in and are inflected by a deftly rendered physical and social world." In a less enthusiastic review, Christopher Monk of musicOMH called "Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit" "a likeable, enjoyable album rather than a great one", writing that "the craft of Barnett's words dwarfs that of her music...there are too many compositions here that feel underwritten." "Rolling Stone" ranked "Pedestrian at Best" at number 4 on its annual year-end list to find the best songs