 "101 Damnations" establishes the band's style, musically fusing drum machines, samples and guitars, and lyrically concerned with poverty and misery, and using extensive cultural references and puns.Ned Raggett of Allmusic characterised the album's musical style as "brash, quick, punk/glam via rough early eighties technology pump-it-up pogoers" and described the heavy usage of puns as "Carter's calling card as much as anything".