in Emika's words, is "about all sides of fakeness, disbelief, dancing on the head of a pin. It begins with a synth I made to feel like a heartbeat, and ends with psychotic hi-hats playing a melody which will come get you while you sleep", the second about the way in which the music industry uses "friendship" as a form of control. Among the remixers were Berlin experimentalists Brandt Brauer Frick, Kyle Hall and DJ Rashad. Critical reception Emika received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 78, based on 13 reviews. Jon O'Brien of AllMusic wrote that the album's "fusion of ethereal melodies and hushed harmonies with avant-garde electronica and twitchy rhythms is indeed as enchanting as it is unsettling", concluding, "Emika doesn't really sound like anyone else out there, an admirable feat which should appeal to those dismayed by dubstep's recent commercial takeover." Killian Fox of The Observer described the album as "an intriguing work: dark, seductive and as hard to pin down as its creator", adding that "the influence of Portishead can be heard in [Emika's] crystalline vocals, but it doesn't define her." Kyle Ellison of Drowned in Sound praised the album as "varied and impressive" and noted that it has "a remarkable sonic balance, creating a tense, claustrophobic atmosphere that lasts from beginning to end." Pitchfork's Jeff Weiss viewed Emika as "the product of a dynamic and assured vision, one that retains an alluring sense of mystery." BBC Music's Wyndham Wallace dubbed the album "[d]isconcerting but bewitching" and stated, "Pop enough to be immediately accessible, but dark enough—in fact almost gothic, in the same way as Zola Jesus is gothic—to be mysterious and provocative, Emika leaves you wanting more, even though you know it's sometimes rather troubling." Jim Carroll of The Irish Times found that "[t]here's a wonderful ethereal mood to the tracks, but dig a little deeper and you'll hear her Emika's fondness for dubstep, techno and the minor masterpieces of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop", calling the album "a seductive, impressive affair, the sound of a producer showing just how much potential she has to offer." Andrew Ryce of Resident Advisor expressed that "Emika's music is formidably physical, a quality only amplified by the tense silence that constantly threatens to swallow everything around it.