The sharp divide between the band's growing fanbase and their critics was evident: in the midst of the album's success, the band was simultaneously voted Best New Band by "Rolling Stone"'s readers and Worst New Band by the magazine's music critics in January 1994. Regarding the album's initial reception, Weiland told "Entertainment Weekly" in 2008, "It was really painful in the beginning because I just assumed that the critics would understand where we were coming from, that these just weren't dumb rock songs".