[7] Susan Frances of AbsolutePunk wrote that "the whole album is tooled with melodic patterned frescos combining orchestral fields with pop/rock elements" and added that it "does justice to the real Neptune City".

[5] Mikael Wood from Entertainment Weekly described it as "heartbreak nearly at its finest — and most cosmopolitan"[9] while Joanna Hunkin of The New Zealand Herald compared it to "an intricate oil painting" and called it "a collection of curiosities, revealing a new intrigue with every listen".

[11] Michael Keefe of PopMatters found the album "big and dreamy", the arrangements "vibrant, lush, and propulsive", and stated that "the instrumentation will swoop in and carry you along for a 40-minute ride through timeless chamber pop", but also noted that "the primal force that drives Neptune City is the huge and charismatic voice of Nicole Atkins".

[12] The album also garnered positive reviews from independent entertainment website IndieLondon, which found it "well worth checking out",[13] and Greek webzine Avopolis, which described it as "an elegy for love".

[14] A fairly mixed review came from Stacey Anderson of Spin, who noticed that the artist "coolly distills the romanticism of '60s girl groups into dark, baleful country pop" but felt that "the songs swell and crest in identical structure, leaving her gorgeous voice [...] to battle the overproduction".

“After the fact, it took on all these different meanings about not being able to feel comfortable in the place that you always thought was home.”[16] Atkins told the Ledger, "I wasn't even planning on writing a song called 'Neptune City.'

[17] The video, directed by David Simon, features fantastic scenes and dreamlike sequences set in a faded amusement area, with moving images of Atkins transposed on older still photographs.

The intentional grainy and distorted look of the video evokes the old peep shows one would have found in early 20th century seaside resorts like Brighton or Atlantic City.

As she sings “I’ll be leaving this place soon,” the picture changes to an image of rapidly deteriorating film but with a statue of Neptune clearly visible in the center of the frame, a reference to the namesake location.