[4] Her music has been compared to that of Alvvays,[2] Beach House,[7][8] Molly Burch,[7] Lucy Dacus,[7] The Drums,[4] Grizzly Bear,[4] Mazzy Star,[9] Real Estate,[4] Faye Webster[7] and Yo La Tengo.
[12] AllMusic's Tim Sendra described the album as "a fully realized and impressive debut that shows Sallee is both a songwriting and recording prodigy of sorts, but also a very inventive vocalist.
[4] Austin Brown of Flood Magazine described the album as "less wistful and more jaded" than its predecessor and praised "I Tried" as the song in which "Caroline Says thrives best—thinking, even dreaming about the future, but bracing oneself for the reality that it never quite turns out like you hope it will.
"[7] Andrew Gordon of The Skinny also compared it to 50,000,000 Million Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong, noting that it "retreats further into the shadows, an even quieter and more withdrawn affair" than the earlier album, and wrote that "Sallee’s songs tend to expand outwards, the feeling established at the outset spreading itself thinner as the loops cover more area.
"[20] Kelly Scanlon of Far Out wrote that "The Lucky One ... lives up to all expectations, adorned with Sallee’s signature vulnerability but with the bonus of clarity", and identified the relationship between memory and emotion as the album's major theme.