It features lyrics about religion, police brutality, mental health and abuse of authority, along with spoken interludes about her personal and artistic struggles.

Most critics found Hill's performances self-indulgent and repetitive, while some appreciated the album as a bold and sincere change in artistic direction.

[7] Alexis Petridis panned the record as "messy" and "inconsequential", mostly because of what he felt were her clichéd self-help lyrics and self-indulgent monologues: "A scant handful of powerful moments, including a furious meditation on the police shooting of a young black man, 'I Find It Hard to Say (Rebel)', are outweighed by repetitious rambling.

"[8] In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau called it one of the "worst album[s] ever released by an artist of substance", finding the songs overlong, verbose, and unmelodic.

[3] In a positive review, AllMusic's William Ruhlmann conceded that Hill's spoken interludes sounded vain and foolish but still felt the album was "fascinating" as an "unfinished, unflinching presentation of ideas and of a person".

[20] The New York Times hailed the album as a "classic performance", with journalist Noel Murray referring to it as a "mesmerizing look at a pop star who dared to reinvent herself in public" and comparing it to the work of Nina Simone.

[21] Writing for Vulture, Lindsey Weber wrote "looking back, it was a brave decision for a young artist to make and ultimately true to the Unplugged format.

One that points straight into the soul of this once-in-a-lifetime artist in raw form, exposing both the brilliance that we fell in love with when we first heard her voice and the fragility of the human spirit.

"[23] In 2022, TheGrio named it among the ten albums that they deemed "ahead of their time", while music critic Matthew Allen wrote that "Twenty years later, it remains a polarizing release for Hill, but fans have come to respect and embrace the bravery and pure artistry of this project".

[24] Writing for America, Stephen G. Adubato wrote "Despite its mixed reception at the time, today the album leaves listeners with questions and provocations that are just as relevant as they were 20 years ago, if not more so.

Hill's ability to wrestle with the realities of original sin and grace—as they apply to both her own life and the institutions that hold power in our society today—echo the prophetic sensibilities of the greatest religious figures and musical artists" for the album's 20th anniversary.

[25] The Boombox proclaimed that the album featured "some wonderful songwriting", and further stated that "some might even say cuts like "Adam Lives in Theory", "Just Like Water" and "Mystery of Iniquity" reached Bob Marley levels in terms of their sentiment.

[41] Furthermore, Actress America Ferrera wrote in her book American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures that the album helped her accept her African ethnicity.