Cruise Your Illusion

The album incorporates influences from various genres, including punk rock,[3] indie rock,[4] grunge,[3] classic rock,[3][5] post-punk[6] and country music.[7] The album is also described to have "the messy fingerprints of indie rock’s cherished first wave smeared all over it."[4]

Neil Young[6] and SST Records artists.[6] Alex Coxen's vocals were also compared to "J. Mascis' froggy baritone, Bob Mould's sneering bite, and the tormented wailing of the Gun Club's Jeffrey Lee Pierce."[6]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	80/100[8]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[6]
Consequence of Sound	C-[4]
Exclaim!	8/10[9]
NME	7/10[3]
Paste	8.7/10[10]
Pitchfork	(7.8/10)[5]

Upon its release, Cruise Your Illusion received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 80, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 12 reviews.[8] Fred Thomas of Allmusic gave the album a positive review, stating: "Cruise Your Illusion holds enough of the band's personality to keep them from being a '90s cover band, but at times, the weight of their ragged influences sits heavy enough on the songs to obscure their most original aspects."[6] Duncan Boyd of Exclaim! wrote: "Cruise Your Illusion sounds like proud, but humble music from a band doing exactly what they want on their terms."[9] Noel Gardner of NME compared the album to The Men's 2013 album, New Moon, commenting: "The highs on The Men’s album are higher than Milk Music’s, but Cruise Your Illusion is the more cohesive statement."[3]

Mark Lore of Paste praised the album, commenting: "Cruise Your Illusion is a record that will likely be spinning on turntables well into the future."[10] Jenn Pelly of Pitchfork wrote: "Cruise Your Illusion holds its ground, but there are sociological elements to Milk Music's story that make the experience of the record even more fun."[5] April Clare Welsh of The Quietus stated: "All shot through with the psychedelic heft of Neil Young & Crazy Horse, this is not a flash in the pan, a fumble in the dark or an album which loses its way but a cosmic paean to perfectionism that creates order out of the most beautiful chaos."[7] Nevertheless, Ryan Bray of Consequence of Sound was rather mixed in his review, stating: "From the lean, scrappy production value to the grandiose guitar solos and Alex Coxen’s wobbling, vocal delivery a la Grant Hart, the record has the messy fingerprints of indie rock’s cherished first wave smeared all over it."[4]

1. "Caged Dogs Run Wild" - 1:41
2. "Illegal And Free" - 5:24
3. "New Lease On Love" - 3:11
4. "Cruising With God" - 2:28
5. "Crosstown Wanderer" - 2:02
6. "No, Nothing, My Shelter" - 3:53
7. "Coyote Road" - 1:21
8. "I've Got A Wild Feeling" - 3:10
9. "Dogchild" - 4:05
10. "Lacey's Secret" - 3:17
11. "Runaway" - 4:09
12. "The Final Scene" - 8:08

Milk Music

• Alex Coxen – design, guitar, illustrations, layout, lettering, slide guitar, vocals
• Dave Harris – bass, guitar, EBow
• Joe Rutter – drums, backing vocals
• Charles Waring – guitar

Other personnel

• Dave Harvey – guitar, backing vocals
• Benjamin Tragdon – Photography