[10] Writing for NME, Barry Nicolson said the album "cements Kings Of Leon as one of the great American bands of our times".

[16] Entertainment Weekly called Because of the Times "an epic wide-screen movie of a CD and the band's best to date.

Kings of Leon is maturing wonderfully and with patience, not forcing anything musically or lyrically that doesn't sound natural.

[23] Dave Hood of Artrocker gave the album one star out of five, finding that "Kings of Leon are experimenting, learning, and getting a bit lost.

"[24] Pitchfork contended that "Because of the Times sound[s] suspiciously like a counterattack on womankind, launched from somewhere in the mid-1990s, deep inside a bruised, stadium-sized ego.