"[9] During a secret concert in Los Angeles with Brion, Apple remarked, "I can't remember any of my new songs because they've been done for a fucking year.
[19] On June 19, 2012, the same day that The Idler Wheel... was released, Apple began an expansive North American tour to promote the album.
On June 24, Apple performed at the Sunday portion of New York City's Governors Ball Music Festival, which featured acts such as Modest Mouse, Explosions in the Sky and Beck, among others.
[37] Blair Kelly of musicOMH said the album is "both roaring with rage and swooning with romance", finding it refreshingly "spare" while its focus is on Apple's "raw, rough and flawed" vocals.
[38] American Songwriter writer Jim Beviglia rated the album four stars out of five, praising its "stark and raw" songs, its "visceral power" and Apple's presentation of "the mixed emotions that accompany the fallout of a broken relationship".
[32] Melissa Maerz of Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A, and regarded it as "highly confessional and creative and temperamental", concluding it "isn't easy listening.
[34] Consequence of Sound called the album "one of the most daring pop records in recent history", awarding it with four-and-a-half stars out of five.
[40] Greg Kot of Chicago Tribune gave it three-and-a-half stars out of four, deeming it "more stripped down and turbulent than before", adding that "It makes for a raw, unsettling listen, tempered by shots of dark humor.
"[41] NME wrote: "The tension created by the lyrics and music is wonderful and uneasy, ensuring that The Idler Wheel... is endlessly fascinating and unlike anything else you're likely to hear this year.
"[33] Jessica Hopper of Spin rated the album eight out of ten, writing that it "relentlessly reassures us that she’s the same old Fiona, still wilding and Weill-ing out" and "the unexpected triumph lies not in the spectacle of the singer raw-dogging her emotions, but in her total command of the anarchy that results".
"[28] Jillian Mapes of Billboard wrote that although the album is "devoid of much musical flourishing", it was "absolutely worth the seven-year wait".
[43] The Boston Phoenix's Zeth Lundy rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of four, describing its sound as "raw and deceptively artless" and deeming it "arguably her funniest ... but also her leanest and most melodically daring.
"[44] Paste magazine reviewer Stephen M. Deusner rated it 8.4 out of 10, stating that Apple relies on the same eccentricities of her past work, and her inability to "get out of her own head — can’t even begin to write a song that doesn’t build on layers of self-conscious self-absorption and gritty self-loathing — may in fact be one of her greatest and most distinguishing strengths as an artist"; while her "overwrought" lyrics "can provoke cringes as easily as sympathetic nods", they "exert a considerable power, marking these songs as indelibly her own".
[45] Now magazine gave the album four out of five stars, writing: "Apple's return to music is not only undeniably powerful, but Idler is arguably her best work yet.