packaging of the album (designed by Andy Smith) has been described as a "love letter to synth technology." While the Reprise edition features ten songs, including three songs from the Songs for Owsley EP, the British version appends alternate versions of the two remaining other songs from the Songs for Owsley EP, in addition to "Sounds for a Thunderstorm (For Peter Zinovieff)", a tribute to said composer. The album charted in neither the UK or US national charts. On the CMJ Radio Top 200 chart, compiled from reports of American college and non-commercial airplay, the album reached a peak of number 44. The record also concurrently peaked at number 37 on the equivalent CMJ Retail chart, compiled from sales reports from major American independent retailers. For the album's accompanying 1997 tour, Spectrum were joined by former Spiritualized member Will Carruthers, who also played on Spectrum's "Songs the Spaceman Taught Us" tour in 2001. To promote Forever Alien, "Feels Like I'm Slipping Away" was released as a single in the UK in September 1997, with "Forever Alien", "Dream Time" and "What Comes Before After?" as B-sides. The single was re-released in the US in June 2000 with the same track listing. Critical reception In a contemporary review of Forever Alien, Option wrote that "Sonic's idea of a good day is not worrying about having to tune a guitar. He's happy as a Venusian clam too, having steered his post-S3 band up into the ether." Ned Raggett of AllMusic described Forever Alien as an album of "crackers," highlighting the songs re-appearing from Songs for Owsley as being among the best. He also described "Feels Like I'm Slipping Away" as "amazing" and praised the song's "wonderful" contrasts. Stephen Thompson of The A.V. Club praised the album's "keen gift for subconscious melody". Although he felt some of the instrumentals, such as "The New Atlantis", failed to gel into songs, and criticised the title track for being "self-serious goop," he nonetheless conceded that "Kember usually gets his atmospherics to sound sufficiently creepy and compelling" throughout the album. In a list for The Quietus, electronic artist Ekoplekz cited Forever Alien as one of his 13 favourite albums. He said the album "probably had a lot to do with awakening my subsequent interest in Radiophonic music," and felt the album's tribute to Delia Derbyshire was notable as "at the time [she] was barely remembered by anyone." He