[9] "Ceaseless Inexhaustible Child (cyntoia brown)" explores a theme of a woman serving a life sentence for a murder that she committed as a teenager.

[10] Will Layman of PopMatters stated: "The virtues of The Imagined Savior Is Far Easier to Paint are, finally, so varied and many that some readers of this review may wonder if it sounds disjointed.

Even though Akinmusire cycles his music through four different vocal performances, several different combinations of instruments, mixing genres with abandon along the way, the result is unified in the best sense.

The variations in tone, form, and emotion make Imagined Savior a satisfying journey rather than an immersion in a single mood, such that listening to this album as it was conceived and put together by a great artist is a whole, marvelous experience.

"[11] Thom Jurek of Allmusic wrote: "Akinmusire self-produced this set and showcases a diverse range of carefully scripted, genre-blurring compositions—modern classical, vanguard pop, spoken word—in addition to jazz...