Chicago popsters Canasta, who recently released We Were Set Up, an enjoyable excursion in calm indie-ness, already made a name for itself before the record was released with consistent live appearances that drew comparisons to The Decemberists, Belle and Sebastian and Yo La Tengo, although this last one is a bit of a stretch. Matt Priest’s vocals are strong and sound more like Archer Prewitt than anything else, and the horns and violins that outro nearly every song add a solid, new quality to a band that could’ve easily sounded like everything else under the sun. The keyboard work, however, stands out as the highlight, as the album’s best songs are backed by a Farfisa-like sound.

— Tom Lynch, New City (Chicago, IL), December 8, 2005