The album was preceded by what "Rolling Stone" called "its triptych of instantly classic singles." The three singles, "The Drowners", "Metal Mickey" and "Animal Nitrate" helped to create a media buzz leading to significant hype for a year leading up to the album's release. It was met with generally favourable reviews both in the UK and in the US. Although it remains the group's biggest-selling album in the US, it struggled to make headway commercially compared to the success in the UK. In 2013, "NME" placed the album at number 78 in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.