Sandé explained that she "felt free to express [her]self more naturally both lyrically and musically in this album and [her] wish is that it will be an uplifting experience for each listener and that they will get to know [her] on a much deeper level".

Shepherd felt the track "Brighter Days" sounds like "Dolly Parton in gospel robes" and called "Look in Your Eyes" a "tasteful, mid-paced reverie" with "old school Terry Lewis/Jimmy Jam-style soul funk".

He also called it "a record that highlights a gifted songwriter and producer doing what they love and being gently experimental with it", remarking that Sandé is "free from the expectations and pressures of cultural ubiquity", thus she "can carry on doing what she's very good at".

[10] Writing for PopMatters, Peter Piatkowski called the songs on the album "for the most part, smart, uplifting pop songs with the kind of inspirational lyrics that would soothe a wide variety of adversarial circumstances", praising the album's "pleasingly diverse sound" and lyrics "which sound as if they've come from a lifetime of experience", akin to a "boxed set of the best episodes from The Oprah Winfrey Show".

Piatkowski further wrote that "Sandé's warmth dominates the record and her songs are like a loving embrace", calling Let's Say for Instance "the soul album we need in these struggle-filled cultural-political times".