[9] Erica Campbell of NME called the album "liberating" as well as "an Afrobeats and disco-laced 14-track joy ride" that "positions the pursuit of unabashed delight at its centre", on which Monáe is "truly ready to share and celebrate her queer, Black experience with the world".

[15] The Independent's Adam White felt that Monáe "trades sci-fi mythologising for carnally-minded joy" on The Age of Pleasure, which he described as "a sex record, a frothy, horny ode to erotic delight that breezes past in a carnal blur".

It still sounds just like a Wondaland production -- soulful, left-of-center pop that is ornate and tasteful, brimming with ideas from subtly dazzling vocal arrangements to crafty song transitions.

"[10] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian named it his album of the week and remarked that Monáe "blends Afrobeat, reggae and laidback soul into a hazily intoxicating cocktail of sex and partying".

[14] Charles Lyons-Burt of Slant Magazine called it "ironic that the first album where Monáe has completely freed herself of the messianic android character that she embodied throughout The Archandroid and The Electric Lady is the one on which she sounds the most inhuman" as they adopt a "droll deadpan with which she conveys her swagger" that makes them come off as "surprisingly joyless" on several tracks.

Heven Haile of Pitchfork described the album as a "rapturous Afrofuturistic sound collage for sunny days and sticky nights" and commented that "Monáe flourishes in a Pan-African utopia" that, while not "as intricate as their sci-fi novellas or as electrifyingly innovative as The ArchAndroid", is "a bacchanal in the haven Monáe constructed for themself".

[18] Veteran critic Robert Christgau cautioned listeners not to make the mistake of overlooking the lyrics amidst Monae's musicality, while summing up her achievement with the idea that she "bets her iconicity on her pan‑sexuality and comes out on top of a crowded field that includes Megan the Stallion, SZA, and Amaarae".