AllMusic's Timothy Monger wrote that Cloud Corner "feels like an old photograph come to life or a languorous, unhurried midday meal" and "while it shares some of same dusty characteristics of its predecessor, this unthemed ten-song set moves with its own insouciant gait."

While her answer at the time was to tell him "happiness wasn't her job", Currin told that she "absolutely" could "write a solo guitar instrumental so buoyant, no one would mistake it for sad" as she "practically jaunts through a stunning four-minute track named for the city where she accepted the challenge".

Currin calls the title track "one of the most beautiful and transfixing solo guitar recordings in years" which "simultaneously recalls the 'continuous music' of pianist Lubomyr Melnyk (and his descendant, the guitarist James Blackshaw) and the incisive Delta blues of Lightnin' Hopkins.

"[8] Dusted's Isaac Olson called Anderson's music "as unpretentious and selfless as the American and African folk traditions that inspire her", noting that Cloud Corner continues Into the Light's overdubbing experiments, this time adding "Wurlitzer piano, the Andean charango, and the Mexican requinto jarocho" to her repertoire.

"[10] Americana UK's Jonathan Aird noted that Anderson "has found herself wandering into the world of Taureg [sic] style guitar playing, as exemplified by Tinariwen, using this to produce a series of mostly quiet and contemplative pieces which drift hypnotically along", commonly featuring "a drone-like rhythm backing up an intricate and oft repeated melody line, particularly across the first half of the album."