[2] In a DIY interview, DeMarco wanted the album to sound like a "demo record", saying "That was maybe the thing, you can't keep tweaking to get to that, you have to let it rest.

Thomas Hobbs of NME said of the album, "Here Comes the Cowboy suggests Mac DeMarco is ready to explore more mature themes and grow beyond the slacker image he has helped turn into a pop-culture staple.

"[11] Rolling Stone's Joe Levy called the songs "stark, meditative, lonely, and stubbornly isolated, like spending 45 minutes petting a cat.

Rachel Aroesti of The Guardian noted that Here Comes the Cowboy may retain some of the disarming simplicity and emotional universality that has become DeMarco's trademark, but it is ultimately an album that fails to welcome the listener warmly into its world."

As a result, the song became DeMarco's first to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, debuting at #98, reaching #83 after achieving over 5.8 million streams within a week in the US.