"[15] The Washington Post labeled it "a thorny mix of antiquey folk, squalling punk and Weimar-era cabaret".

[17] Rolling Stone considered Ancient & Modern 1911–2011 "meaty and grizzled folk rock", writing that "the title track is almost a play on nostalgia's seductive power".

[14] The Village Voice deemed it "another masterful bricolage of styles that plays on British historical resonances from across the last century.

"[19] Pitchfork stated that the Mekons still sound "prickly, jovial, boozy, resistant to the bourgeois pleasures of rhyme and tune but sometimes seduced by them anyway.

"[12] Robert Christgau admired "the ingrained musicality of a bunch of jokers who've evolved into a sonic organism even though they never see each other anymore".