In 2019, AJJ frontman Sean Bonnette ranked Can't Maintain as his third favorite album from the band's six releases to date[5] and described it as "the only record thus far where we knew the sequence going into it.

"[5] In 2019, AJJ celebrated the album's 10th anniversary by playing it in full at a fundraising concert in Phoenix, Arizona.

[6][7] All lyrics are written by Sean Bonnette; all music is composed by Andrew Jackson JihadAdam Finley, writing for PopMatters, described Can't Maintain as one of the best albums of 2009.

[8] Robin Smith of PopMatters wrote that the album "opened with scuzzy electric guitars and pounding drums" and called the track "We Didn't Come Here to Rock" a "delightfully ironic rocker.

Club included the track “Who Are You?” in its list of songs about bad fathers, adding that Bonnette "[coats] his complex emotions in witty one-liners.