[6] She recalled to The Globe and Mail that she met her new baby nephew for the first time, when she left the hospital in which her father died that night.

[6] June had originally written around a hundred songs, as reported by Elle, and she narrowed them down to twelve that ended up on the album.

[5] Referring to the "spectral organ and densely layered acoustic guitars [guiding] songs like 'The Front Door', 'Two Hearts' and 'Astral Plane'", Jonathan Bernstein of the American Songwriter said that the "ethereal, contemplative and meandering narratives provide a counterbalance to the controlled catharsis of June's soul".

[12] Josh Hurst of Slant Magazine wrote, "[The] mingling of the earthbound and the otherworldly is crucial to the album, and June makes it sound like the most natural thing in the world.

[19] He wrote: "Rootsy, leisurely, genre-blurring Americana grooves roll along and evolve behind Valerie June’s assorted voices — nasal, clear, cracked, breathy — in songs with a casual, conversational surface.

[20] Calling the album "maybe the most underrated gem of 2017", Eliza Thompson of Cosmopolitan wrote, "Whether she's a joyous hand-clapper as on 'Shakedown' or a dreamy balladeer as on 'Astral Plane', her voice is so mesmerizing you'll never want to stop listening.

"[20] In The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop, a poll regarding the best albums of the year as voted by more than 400 American music critics, The Order of Time tied with Laura Marling's Semper Femina at the 89th spot.