[17] Chicago Tribune reviewer Greg Kot was particularly complimentary of the album, giving it a rating of 3.5/4, he said "Nasty riffs and sticky melodies are everywhere".

He also praised multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones, saying his "mastery of texture, whether on funky Clavinet for 'Scumbag Blues,' classical piano on 'Spinning in Daffodils' or slide guitar for 'Reptiles,' is the band's secret weapon".

Club's Steven Hyden said the group's album "doesn’t equal the considerable awesomeness of its ancestors (the aforementioned Led Zeppelin, Nirvana and Queens of the Stone Age); it sounds like a second-tier Queens Of The Stone Age record", and that it "could have fit comfortably under Homme’s usual banner".

He did however, commend it for being "a hell of a lot of fun" and awarded it a B+, adding "The biggest pleasure of Them Crooked Vultures is hearing three supremely gifted players fall together quickly and easily on songs built on simple riffs that sound like they were made up on a lark five minutes earlier.

Released, rather oddly, at virtually the same time as Foo Fighters' new greatest hits collection, this album sounds by and large like QOTSA, as Homme sings and plays guitar, but with – unsurprisingly really – Zeppelin-esque touches.