[2] Editors at AllMusic rated this album 4 out of 5 stars, with critic Matt Collar writing that this album "finds the vocalist/guitarist delivering a stripped-down, largely acoustic set of warm, eclectic cover tunes... that's a 180-degree turn from her previous effort, 2013's ambitious homage to Ray Charles, The Blue Room.

[5] John Fordham of The Guardian praised the combination of "intimate exuberance and classic songs" captured in the live-in-studio setting and rated this release 4 of 5 stars.

[6] In The Irish Times Cormac Larkin rated Secular Hymns 3 out of 5 stars, ending "they’re the sort of songs that can sound hollow and insincere in the wrong hands, but Peyroux delivers every word like her life depends on it".

[8] The Observer's Dave Gelly scored this release 4 of 5 stars for "the warm intimacy of her voice and the incisive clarity of the arrangements".

[9] Writing for PopMatters, Steve Horowitz a 7 out of 10, summing up that "Peyroux offers fine performances, but they are hers and not the originals" and these songs are "mostly well-known classics from the past—they aren’t records meant to be broken but to be replayed again for their own merits".