Upon its release, "Time Will Tell" received positive reviews from music critics, who commended Utada's vocal abilities and production style.

Born and raised in New York City, Utada had her first solo experience in professional recording with Cubic U, a pseudonym used for her earlier English language work.

[2] Executives at the company worked with her to become classified as a singer-songwriter instead of an idol singer, but prompted her to write and record songs in Japanese language rather than English.

[3] From the bunch, Utada solely wrote "Time Will Tell" in Tokyo, and recorded a demo tape in mid-1998—which then appeared on the special 15th Anniversary edition of her album First Love (1999).

According to a contributor of Japanese magazine CD Journal, they noticed that the sound was "very mid-tempo" and believed it to be inspired by contemporary American culture.

[4][10] The cover art for the mini CD was a shot from the accompanying music video, which has the singer sitting on the yellow sofa.

[4] In the United States, "Automatic" and "Time Will Tell" were added onto a special 12" vinyl that was published for promotional usage, namely through underground clubs.

[11] Furthermore, the artwork for the standard CD single was yet another shot from the clip, this time with Utada standing in the blue room wearing white clothes.

A journalist of CD Journal awarded it a special star recognition, praising Utada's songwriting and her vocal performance.

[7] Kano, writing for Rockin'on Japan magazine, examined the single's ability to re-ignite J-pop globally, and praised her vocal performance and sound.

[16] By the end of 1999, Oricon ranked the single at number 22 on her year-end chart, with estimated sales of 772,080, making it the seventh highest entry by a female artist—five of which were claimed by the singer.

[18] This release claimed an additional 1,290,700 units, making this Utada's best-selling physical single; it was listed at number five on Oricon's year-end chart for the same year.

[20] It depicts the singer in a red and white room singing the track, whilst a pictorial slideshow of her is played throughout the visual.