"Produced by Jack Knife Lee -- best known for his work with latter-day R.E.M., Weezer, and Snow Patrol -- Back to Forever trades as heavily on the thick gloss of the '80s as it does the near-simultaneously released Days Are Gone by Haim, but it also has the gossamer sheen of Eurogloss that seems incongruous coming from a native of Illinois and current resident of California. Nevertheless, that slight cognitive dissonance adds resonance and depth to Lissie in general and Back to Forever especially, preventing the music from getting mired in classic rock tropes or seeming too ephemeral. Nevertheless, the mix of high gloss and precision songwriting means the album's peaks often fall into a netherworld that recalls pre-MTV AOR crossover as much as it does new wave".