Club praised the album, calling it "a stirring set of memorable power-pop, given a personal spin via Newman's habit of delivering hard-to-parse pronouncements, like some kind of mad-eyed, curiously convincing soothsayer".

Matthew Fiander of PopMatters wrote: "as the album fades out to Newman and company singing, you feel drawn in to the song, much closer to the record than when you began.

[6] Jesse Cataldo of Slant Magazine concluded: "yet all of this feels like quibbling when surveying an album that's still devastatingly charming, consistently intelligent, and engaging on first listen".

[5] Jessica Suarez of Spin found the album "dwells on the past, and that pensive reflection mutes the second half, turning Newman's boast into a wistful memory".

[11] In his mixed review for The Boston Phoenix, Michael Patrick Brady wrote: "too many of the songs rely on a stilted, march-like rhythm that makes them sound formal and restrained, especially when paired with Newman's arch lyrical delivery".