While most of the songs were included on proposed track listings by Hendrix, the final selection was made by recording engineer Eddie Kramer and drummer Mitch Mitchell, with input from manager Michael Jeffery.

[1] The Cry of Love is composed mostly of songs which Hendrix recorded in 1970 at his new Electric Lady Studios in New York City with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy Cox.

[3][4] The album credits Hendrix as a producer, as well as long-time recording engineer Eddie Kramer and Mitchell, who prepared the final mixes and track selection, with input from manager Michael Jeffery.

... For these reasons, [The Cry of Love] can't be considered to be the fourth studio album Hendrix would have released had he survived, whether it would have ended up being called First Rays of the Rising Sun or something else.

[30][32] Reviewing for Rolling Stone in 1971, Lenny Kaye hailed The Cry of Love as the authentic posthumous Hendrix album, his last work, and "a beautiful, poignant testimonial, a fitting coda to the career of a man who was clearly the finest electric guitarist to be produced by the Sixties, bar none".

[19]In the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2006), Colin Larkin called The Cry of Love a "fitting tribute" to Hendrix,[22] and Paul Evans wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (1992) that it "showed the master, playing with Cox and Mitchell, at his most confident: 'Ezy Rider' and 'Angel' are the tough and tender faces of the genius at his most appealing.

[20] However, Dan Bigna from The Sydney Morning Herald said in his review that, although all of the songs had been compiled on the more comprehensive First Rays collection, "there is something satisfying about having this first posthumous Hendrix release as a distinct object that illuminates the brush strokes of a genius".