The album features the hidden track "Big Yellow Taxi", a Joni Mitchell cover.

Reviews hailed the album as the best release from Counting Crows since their debut album August and Everything After (1993), with the albums of the mid-1990s being "long, and drawn out", likely due to lead singer Adam Duritz's state of mind at that time, one reviewer happily announced that, "Hard Candy is crisp and tight, packed with three- and four-minute shots of radio friendly fare", and that during a time when hard rock is the standard, the band are not afraid of a sound that is in the title track, compared to the Byrds, and with its "Allman-esque" twin guitars, echoes The Band in "If I Could Give All My Love (Richard Manuel Is Dead)".

[8] The album has received a score of 69 out of 100 based on "generally favorable reviews" from Metacritic.

However, the cover of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" was met with searing criticism, with The Village Voice naming it the worst song of the 2000s[9]:Adam, we don't know if you misunderstood the song's anti-globalization, anti-industrialization, anti-corporation message, or just chose to ignore it so you could get free Frappucinos for life.

You drove your shitty steamroller over something everyone loved so you could pander your sensitive pussyhound whine to people waiting in line at the Carl's Jr.