Need to Feel Your Love was included in the top 30 of year-end lists of publications such as Rolling Stone, NME, Spin, Slant Magazine, Noisey, and Paste.

[17] As writer Jeremy Winograd described how her singing adds to the political aspect of the music, she "reclaim[s] variations on '70s-style hairy-chested horndog sentiments, whether set to indelible funk on the title track or whirling rock riffs on "Just Can't Get Enough," [that] endows them with a feminist edge.

[9] This includes a decrease of lo-fi processing on Halladay's vocals,[18] which came from producer and group bassist Hart Seely's mother saying she couldn't understand the words she was singing.

[2] A NME writer described Need to Feel Your Love as showing Sheer Mag's more "tender side," noting elements of the works of Nile Rodgers and ABBA added to the group's style on the record.

"[20] "Suffer Me" deals with the legacy of the Stonewall riot,[20] "(Say Goodbye To) Sophie Scholl" is a ballad about the titular anti-Nazi protester,[20] and "Expect the Bayonet" and the title track regards racial inequality in the United States.

[20] The Guardian writer Ben Beaumont-Thomas, in a five-star review, called Need to Feel Your Love one of the "most tenacious" records of 2017: "Sheer Mag give you everything – socially conscious, sexually confident rock'n'roll that nods to [several styles] and make it even more than the sum of its parts.

"[16] His only criticism was that the record "suffers slightly from the pacing issue of moving to a 12-song LP after mastering the EP format," where its "back half gets bogged down by some of the mid-tempo tracks, especially an out-of-character ballad ("Until You Find The One"), after burning through the tremendous highs of its first side.

"[16] Tiny Mix Tapes writer Leah B. Levinson called it "propulsive and provides evidence to the talk that a guitar band in 2017 can be a source of ingenuity without pulling excessive tricks and mutations upon the craft.

"[2] Some reviewers honored the LP for broadening the dynamics of the band's music while maintaining their original sound,[28][17][30][16] which Selmon opined Sheer Mag was "tricky" task.

[4][28][27] However, it was criticized in a review by Bekki Bemrose, a writer for musicOMH, who felt the cleaner sound removed the "raw and raucous energy" of the band's past records.

[35] A review in The Observer called the album "unlistenable," putting the blame on Halladay's vocals for the record being "one-dimensional" despite having elements from a diverse set of styles musically.