The Nigerian Afro-beat musician Femi Kuti appears on the album's first single, "Make You Crazy".

[2] Referring to "Make You Crazy", Dennen told Rolling Stone: "I made the song catchy but it's about all the injustice in the world.

[4] Hope for the Hopeless received a score of 71 on Metacritic, which collated reviews from Entertainment Weekly, Allmusic, Popmatters, Paste, Billboard and Rolling Stone.

[5] The most favourable review came from Entertainment Weekly's Leah Greenblatt, who hailed the albums "tuneful folk-rock accessibility" before giving it a final rating of B+.

Dennen's songwriting was held up to scrutiny by, among others, Popmatters' Aarik Danielsen, who said, in a 7/10 review, "...he’s no Dylan or Lennon, but he does capture the spirit of a generation attracted to the hopeful promise they witnessed in the Obama candidacy.