[8] Abby Johnston of the Austin Chronicle wrote "If a pair of 2010 EPs approximated an untamed jungle and 2012's debut LP Lonesome Dreams a tree house amongst it, Lord Huron's sophomore full-length Strange Trails is Ben Schneider's completed bungalow, his little plot of land in lush wilds".

[3] Matt Conner of Under the Radar singled out "Meet Me in the Woods" as "undeniably Schneider's best work yet", and while noting that the album was slightly inconsistent in quality, praised it overall as "always beautiful" and "arresting".

[2] Ben Hogwood of musicOMH spoke positively of the "melodic strength and songwriting craft while introducing more noticeable elements of vulnerability," while criticizing some of the lyricism.

[4] In a more mixed review, Bud Scoppa of Uncut stated that "the blend is rich and the performances spirited, but the thin, reverberant sound prevents the tracks from hitting the ear with impact, as if they were mic’d from a distance in a barn".

While he praised some songs, primarily "Hurricane", he concluded that it was "as if the band, having gone to all the effort of building the car from scratch, painting it Technicolor and made the perfect mixtape for their road trip, half-filled the tank and left the wheels uninflated".