[1][2] Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt marks a stylistic and thematic retreat from the politically-themed and punk rock-influenced Pacific Void Choir records.

[5] Two songs from the album, "Mere Anarchy" and "The Ceremony of Innocence", are named after lines from the 1919 W. B. Yeats poem "The Second Coming", which resonated with Moby as "a horrifying description of what we're going through.

[7] Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic found the album "mostly indebted" to trip hop and Moby's late 1990s musical style,[8] while Billboard journalist Steven J. Horowitz said that it is driven by a "'90s trip-hop aesthetic".

"[30] Evening Standard critic Elizabeth Aubrey felt that Moby, in returning to his musical roots, had produced "one of his most accessible albums in years.

[31] Louise Bruton of The Irish Times deemed it "Moby's most personal album yet" and was compelled by its analysis of "the human condition and the awfulness that that can inflict.

"[26] Mike Schiller of PopMatters said that while some listeners might be put off by the tracks' slower tempos and "hazy and gauzy" production, Moby mostly succeeds in "turning despair and hopelessness into something engaging".

[32] In a mixed review for Pitchfork, Sasha Geffen criticized the "circuitousness" of Moby's lyrics and found his typically "unvarnished" vocal style less suited to the album's more elaborate music.

[28] Ilana Kaplan of The Independent welcomed the inclusion of female vocals throughout the album, which she felt "speaks volumes in 2018", but wrote that the lyrics occasionally feel "overwrought" and "distract from his gorgeous soundscapes".

[25] Spin's Annie Zaleski deemed the record "a let down—the equivalent of a sad, deflated Mylar balloon" compared to Moby's previous "buoyant" albums, despite its "glimmers of promise".