"[14] Jordan Redmond of Tiny Mix Tapes praised the album as "a lo-fi synth pop masterpiece that manages to give endless aural delights while still being intellectually engaging, and despite having been caught at the center of a whirlpool of current movements, all of which reflect some aspect of Maus’ style, he has only cemented his identity as a singular, unimpeachable figure.

"[11] PopMatters' Maria Schurr compared the album's 1980s aesthetic to collaborator Ariel Pink's recent Before Today (2010), writing that Pitiless Censors is "less moody, more consistent in its sense of oddness and intrigue.

[21] Factmag's Samuel Breen believed that while the music "is loaded with liminal pop anthems", it did not succeed at reflecting Maus' philosophical ideas: "too often these songs feel constrained by DIY ideologies and crude experimentation, and there are moments where the gulf between theory and sound could hardly be more distinct.

"[10] Matthew Cole of Slant Magazine awarded the album with a zero star rating, citing derivative synth instrumentation, "minimal accessibility", and "maximum pretension".

He wrote that the album is "at best, like an unfinished video-game score and, at worst, like a Human League track played backward in a Walkman taped to the skull of a drowning man.

Sometimes the instrumentals approximate a no-budget Disintegration in their misbegotten twinkliness, but no amount of lo-fi shimmer can compensate for the intentional inadequacy of the vocal lines and the utter lack of memorable melodies.