[2] The band played shows in support of the album with Brand New,[3] as well as their first-ever[4] headlining slots alongside Toys That Kill, Mitski,[5] and Modern Baseball.

[6] After diving deeper into their esoteric influences on the eccentric sophomore release Of All Things I Will Soon Grow Tired (2012), Joyce Manor opted to take a back-to-basics approach with Never Hungover Again.

In an interview, Johnson explained that Knobbe was dating a person in Santa Cruz who was in college; "While she was in school all day, he would just smoke weed and play guitar.

[13] "It was during this batch of songwriting that I noticed a pretty big jump in the quality of the songs we were writing and Chase and I really started spending a lot of time on the vocals and guitar parts and how they interact with each other," he remembered.

Entertainment Weekly's Miles Raymer observed that "Never Hungover Again combines the earnestly awkward adolescent squawk of emo foundation-layers Cap'n Jazz with Cali pop-punk’s buzzsaw hooks.

[11] Ian Cohen later observed that the signing of Joyce Manor led a 2010s renaissance for the label: "Never Hungover Again immediately revitalized Epitaph, starting a run of scene-defining records from Pianos Become the Teeth, Touché Amoré, the World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, and the Sidekicks.

'"[11] Hoffer had a conversation with Johnson about the goals for mixing the album, and he stressed that he preferred the sound of synthesizers to guitars, offering "Friday I'm in Love" as a touchpoint.

Club critic David Anthony wrote that the album "isn’t a complete overhaul of the band’s sound, but with all the gentle twists on those charms, it ends up serving as a re-introduction.

"[27] Ian Cohen of Pitchfork thought: "Once you stop trying to label what should be a hook and focus on what is, the ingenuity of each song’s design and the ear-turning nature of every maneuver speaks to Never Hungover Again's inexhaustible quality, the kind of album you can play three times in a row without any part wearing out its welcome.

"[35] NPR's Lars Gotrich viewed it a "confident, focused record,"[18] while PopMatters' Tanner Smith found "it has almost peerless consistency in quality [...] The band’s concision is evidenced not only in each song’s respective brevity, but through the rigid structures and arrangements, balancing mathematical control and cathartic release.

"[37] Maura Johnson from The Boston Globe observed "The resentful “In the Army Now” and determined “Heart Tattoo” clip along thanks to sprightly, melodic bass lines from Matt Ebert and Kurt Walcher’s clockwork drumming.

"[38] Stereogum's Danielle Chelosky called it their best album, opining: "Never Hungover Again finds the band at their most emotive and compelling — an incisive and intoxicating snapshot of what it means to be alive.

[41] For Stereogum, Danielle Chelosky opined "Never Hungover Again masterfully achieves what most artists spend their lives trying to accomplish: It captures intense feeling and passes it on to its listener.