Hairless Toys

"There was a desire to make an unquestionably refined record. It’s multi layered, electronic and live instrumentation, musically it goes to places most pop music never does. It’s emotionally bare and laced with irony. I definitely didn’t set out to make something unique per-se but it really is like nothing you’ve ever heard before. So it’s impossible to describe except to say..it’s heartfelt." Murphy directed accompanying music videos for the singles "Exploitation", "Evil Eyes" and "Unputdownable". Harriet Gibsone of The Guardian found "Gone Fishing" contains "Italo-disco house mutations and unusual country diversions". Heather Phares of AllMusic stated second track and second single "Evil Eyes" has an "irresistible groove". Christopher Monk of musicOMH pointed out the "scuttling percussion, Nile Rodgers-esque guitar, atonal piano stabs" of "Exploitation", while Jim Carroll called the lead single "a track where the groove is simple and sparse, works with considerable panache." Phares noted the "synth bass and waggish backing vocals on 'Uninvited Guest'", and called "Exile" "a dreamy bit of torch twang". In her review for Pitchfork Media, Katherine St. Asaph pointed out that "Exile" is "delivered in a wearied whisper". St. Asaph judged "Unputdownable" to be "a traditional Murphy extended metaphor—lover as page-turning book", continuing on to say that "'House of Glass' delivers grand statements, often set stark against the music". Monk described "Hairless Toys (Gotta Hurt)" as a "lovely ballad" and thought "Unputdownable" to "end the album on a downer, before it transforms into something quite uplifting".