[2] Preceded by the singles, "Weird Goodbyes", "Alphabet City" and "Space Invader", the album features guest vocal appearances from Justin Vernon, Phoebe Bridgers and Rosanne Cash.

[19] Editors at AllMusic rated this album 3.5 out of 5 stars, with critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine writing that the music is at "a precisely modulated temperature, bringing the songs to warmth slowly and steadily".

[23] In Exclaim!, Alex Hudson rated Laugh Track an 8 out of 10, calling it stronger than its predecessor: "where the earlier album sounded meek, the follow-up finds the National easily sinking into what they do best".

[25] Shaad D'Souza of The Guardian rated this work 4 out of 5 stars, stating that it "feels like a fresh start" for the band and that it adopts "a more grownup take on the existential conundrums of earlier National records".

[29] Irish Independent editors declared this album of the week and critic praising the lyric's exploration of romantic relationships and "artfully constructed" arrangements featuring live drumming.

[30] Tony Clayton-Lea of The Irish Times stating that this music "uses a similar sonic template" to their last, but also mixes different styles to show that the band "are as good at stillness as they are at movement"; he scored Laugh Track a 4 out of 5.

[31] At musicOMH, John Murphy gave this album 4 out of 5 stars, writing that "it's musically not such a close cousin of First Two Pages, but more its identical twin – the same brooding atmosphere, that bottled up tension that seems to have become Matt Berninger's vocal trademark – yet over a few plays, it seems to slowly take a life of its own".

[33] Thomas Smith of NME rated Laugh Track 4 out of 5 stars, characterizing it as "a surprise companion record that's louder, more immediate and rawer than its predecessor" and in comparison to First Two Pages of Frankenstein, this album has "the looser structures and [the] decision to allow the songs room to grow, melodically and lyrically pays off".

[37] Rolling Stone UK published a 4-out-of-5 star review from Will Richards that calls this release "an impulsive, fearless sister record" that is "the freest they've ever sounded" and the songs "flow with unfiltered energy and spontaneity".

[40] At Uproxx, critic Steven Hyden created the mixtape Frankenstein Laughs made of tracks from The National's two 2023 albums[41] and included this compilation among his favorite music of September.

[44] John Meagher of Irish Independent chose "Smoke Detector" as the third best foreign song of 2023, describing it as "a gnarlier, brighter companion record that was rapidly completed once their mojo had been reignited".