Stolen Wishes

The album was recorded at the band's Short Order Recorder studio.[2] Ric Menck, of Velvet Crush, plays drums on Stolen Wishes.[1] Shoes' three principal band members each wrote five songs.[6]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[7]
Robert Christgau	B[8]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[9]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[10]
Select	3/5[11]

The Washington Post wrote that "the music of these studio hermits ... remains as pure and sweet—bittersweet, actually—as such antecedents as the Hollies, the Beau Brummels, and of course the Beatles."[4] Robert Christgau called the band "still hooky after all these years."[8] The Chicago Tribune concluded that "the record celebrates craft rather than quirks, the primacy of melody and harmony rather than dance beats and gimmickry."[6]

The Dallas Morning News determined that the band "continues its tireless pursuit of this thing called love while tossing out some of the most immediately affecting harmonies and melodies since that band from Liverpool."[12] The San Francisco Chronicle opined that "Shoes sounds like classic American heartland rock that won't go away, no matter what."[13] The Austin American-Statesman listed the album as the sixth best of 1990 (and the best independent release), describing it as "boy-girl songs with an older-and-wiser edge in a testament to the timelessness of hooks and harmonies."[14]

AllMusic wrote that Shoes "appeared to have gotten over their collective distrust of keyboards, and the bright, punchy sound, peppy tempos, and frequent synthesizer washes of Stolen Wishes sound like a studied attempt at a more 'contemporary' sound from a band who seemed perfectly content to be slightly anachronistic a decade earlier."[7] The Rolling Stone Album Guide determined that "the group's creamy harmonies, propulsive three-chord riffing and yearning choruses cut as deep as ever."[10]