with jams in the middle.” Greentree felt the production should have been less muddy, while McLean noted that their apparent shortcomings were the band's fault; however, the band also blamed Regal for their dissatisfaction with the final album, including the abandoning of the ambient disc, which they saw as having been incomplete, and for not providing them with enough time or money to work on the album satisfyingly. The statements immediately caused tension between the band and their label; The Guardian quoted "an enraged EMI chairman" as demanding to know "what the fuck is going on with the Beta Band?" The newspaper said the band "began a public slagging match with their record company." Miles Leonard, boss of Regal and the band's manager, dismissed their complaints, calling them "lame excuses" as "they had as much time as they wanted to have to make it, they were not forced to do anything they didn't want to." However, he did admit that some of the financial constraints led him to prevent the band's continental recording idea, but felt the album was "nowhere near as bad as they say", despite feeling it could have better. By the time of follow-up album Hot Shots II (2001), the band's opinion on The Beta Band had not changed and spoke out against it being mentioned to them in interviews, with Greentree adding: "We just never felt the album was properly finished." Critical reception The Beta Band was less well received by music critics than the Beta Band's previous releases. According to Pitchforks Stuart Berman, the album "deflated the ballooning expectations surrounding the group in the wake of The Three EPs with all the elegance and subtlety of a whoopee cushion." While many critics praised the band's ambitions, the album was also concurrently criticised as overstuffed and messy. In a retrospective piece, Derek Miller of Stylus Magazine disagreed that it was messy, saying it was "brave and cohesive", and noted how "they manage to somehow form a whole out of shattered, uneven pieces. It's awkward, Dalian, almost completely disinterested in closing the circle, and that’s the beauty in its madness." Among original reviews, Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork hailed The Beta Band as a unique sounding album that was "so psychedelic, yet not excessively experimental." Ron Hart, writing for CMJ New Music Monthly, was favourable, praising the album and how it turned "experimental dabblings" into a "fully realised