Sly Stone, at one time the San Francisco Bay Area's top rated rhythm and blues disc jockey and also a former A&R man for a now defunct local label (Autumn), once composed a song, with Tom Donahue, called "The Swim." Sly Stone is well-based in composition and production and he does have "a whole new thing."

The record represents the Bay Area's very first rhythm and blues group to go national. It reflects a combination of San Francisco's 'new thing' and some standard R&B techniques, an approach which is interesting but not entirely effective. None of the tracks particularly stand out as strong. The production — and it is more a production than a performance — is still in the experimentation stage and has not yet come to a satisfactory conclusion.

“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.