[1] Matthew Chisling of AllMusic found the album an improvement over This Is Me, praising the production for containing both retro and modern beats, and Black as a performer and songwriter, concluding that "On Revival, we see so many sides of a truly multi-dimensional Black who, thanks to more than a decade of struggle and failure, releases a powerful showing of delicious Rhythm & Blues to her fans and leaves them coming back for more.
Black has improved in every aspect, and establishes herself as a truly credible R&B Canadian diva who deserves heaps of praise and success; Canada, you've found your Mary J.
also gave praise to the production but said that listeners might be put off by it playing safe and yearn for Black's trademark genre-mixing sound, concluding that, "In the grand scheme of things however, its remarkable that a Canadian R&B artist even gets to record a sophomore disc, much less one as ambitious as this.
Revival rocks rightly, plays it safe and essentially ensures Black a lengthy and award-winning Canadian career.
"[4] Jason Richards, writing for NOW, was critical of the album's single "Seven Day Fool" and felt that it carried over on the production sounding mainstream and radio-friendly, concluding that "[T]he canned production is undeservedly insipid and needlessly limits Black's potent and versatile energy.