[3] Trouser Press' Erik Hage wrote that Devotion + Doubt was "...a gut-wrenching song cycle that deserves a place in the divorce-album hall-of-fame alongside Dylan's Blood on the Tracks".

[10] Peter Blackstock of No Depression wrote that "It's the voice that brings Buckner's music to flesh; he is, above all else, a singer.

It's a smooth, melodious croon, by nature, but imbued with such a warm, bittersweet darkness that the sound seems to ooze from the speakers in richly layered browntones with every careful cadence.

"[12] Dan Kening of the Chicago Tribune was less favorable in his review of the album, writing, "Buckner saddles even his better songs, like "Lil' Wallet Picture" and "A Goodbye Rye," with such pretentious lyrics ("Once upon a blue thing or two/Eyes and sighs and a moon confused") that they sink under their own self-conscious weight.

"[5] Robert Christgau similarly mocked Buckner's lyrics, writing in The Village Voice, "he has just the sensitive baritone to make awful seem awful romantic to sad sacks and the women who love them.