"The Art of Pretending to Swim is never less than pleasant, and there are no bad songs here. But it's only intermittently interesting because O'Brien's vocals and melodies are mostly just okay. When O'Brien throws in those weird synth sounds and that fast final minute of "Ada", or even that better than average refrain on "Fool", that's when Villagers grab the ears. Outside of those instances, the album often faded from my focus, becoming slightly funky background music".