To keep himself from overthinking the songs, DeGraw made Free in less than two weeks at the Brooklyn studio of his producer Camus Celli, who has worked with such artists as Tina Turner, David Byrne, Lana Wolf and Arto Lindsay.

It sounds like where you go to escape the big machine.” It was a pleasure to make an album with understated production where the featured element was the content.

Giving the album three-out-of-four stars, USA Today said that "DeGraw's haunting, bluesy drawl sometimes overwhelms this earnest, soulful-ish material.

"[7] Chuck Arnold of People magazine also gave the album three-out-of-four stars and found that DeGraw "gets back to his soulful essence on this simple, stripped-down collection of early and new songs.

"[5] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave the album 3 out of 5 stars saying, "He could use at least one hook as big as "I Don't Wanna Be," but Free manages to flow easily and warmly, something that couldn't quite be said of the blue-eyed soul bluster of his first two albums."