LaValle wrote six tracks before going to Iceland, so that he would have room to improvise and collaborate on the remaining portion of the album.

Still only doing lead vocals on a single track, LaValle used In A Safe Place to "get out of my comfort zone" and overcome reservations about singing.

[11] Sigur Rós : [12] In a Safe Place received generally favorable reviews, with Pitchfork describing the record as "the sound of slowing down," saying that "the record feels tired-but-satisfied, like crawling home after a long night of misadventures, burrowing into the backseat of a cab, squinting your eyes at the light buzzing across the horizon, tying your shoes, and thinking hard about blankets.

"[13] musicOHM says that, while the album is "a more pop-orientated slant" than Jimmy LaValle's "previous bedroom soundscapes," In A Safe Place remains "a thing of rare beauty.

"[14] AllMusic has a lukewarm take to the album, saying "The album is exactly the sum of its parts, perhaps less and definitely no more," sparingly offering that "...one piece hints at the record's full power, 'Over the Pond,' on which LaValle plays a simple, slightly changing Satie line on keyboards while the full Sigur Rós trio are heard for the first time ... playing up their brand of studied melancholy.