The album's title comes from a line in the song "12/17/12", a reference to the date of Barack Obama's speech in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and lead singer Colin Meloy's conflicting feelings about the shooting and his happy personal life.

[3] The Boston Globe described the album as one of the band's "most enjoyable and lively efforts in recent memory",[14] The New York Times noted that What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World "strikes a note of pop concision and maturity, building on what worked on ‘The King Is Dead.’ Lyrically, there are fewer thistles and minarets and palanquins—and, musically, less digressive excess—than once made up the Decemberists’ trademark style.

"[15] Jeremy D. Larson of Pitchfork was a detractor, bemoaning the album as "overlong and under-ambitious", though appreciating that listeners "start to see Meloy himself more than ever".

Larson also wrote highly of "Make You Better", stating, "The band has never lacked the musical bona fides to write a great anthem.

7 on the Billboard 200 albums chart on its release, selling around 50,000 copies in the United States in its first week.