[4] In a review for AllMusic, Al Campbell awarded the album three stars, writing "Ayler's uncompromising musical freedom mixed with his catchy combination of nursery rhythms and brass band marches remained prominent on Love Cry.

"[5] Writing for All About Jazz, Tim Niland called Love Cry "one of Ayler's finest LPs", stating that it "features short themes and improvisations that are accessible, yet experimental and stick in the mind like an earworm long afterward.

'Universal Indians' shows that they didn't leave their roots behind, it's a free-jazz blowout with a nice trumpet and tenor dialogue that is ripe and torrid, while Graves is simply extraordinary propelling everyone ever onward, it is also the album's one epic, clocking in at almost ten minutes.

'Ghosts' and 'Bells' had originally been cut in much more furious and lengthy versions for ESP-Disk; here, the band... focuses more on the melodies than the solos, and the two horns intertwine and converse in a way that's quite beautiful, while also bringing in strong elements of R&B and New Orleans polyphony.

Cobbs' harpsichord is a strange and occasionally disquieting element; on 'Dancing Flowers,' he's playing trills that sound like music from the soundtrack to a silent horror movie, as Silva bows the bass portentously and Graves rattles around the kit.