Typhoon front-man, Kyle Morton, wrote and composed all the songs on the album. As a child, Morton had a life threatening case of Lyme disease and suffered multiple organ failures. Ultimately he received a kidney transplant from his father, but he lost most of his childhood to the illness.[2] The album is a mixture of darkness hopelessness along with wanting for more and uplifting melodies.[3] At a concert in Boston, Morton shared the story behind the song named after a dilemma that shares his name, Morton's fork, which Morton explained as being "paralyzed by two equally bad choices," a situation he faced in his own past.[4]
White Lighter was received with critical success. In regards to the band's sound and size, Hilary Saunders of Paste Magazine said "The band’s comparatively enormous size—marked by a horn section, string section and eclectic percussion—naturally exudes a boisterous optimism and familial charm."[8] Jonathan Doyle of the New Welsh Review said that for Morton, "For him, this fear is not vanity in the face of impermanence but rather an attempt to make sense of time we have had and still have."[9]