After the band performed the song in Berkeley, California, on 12 June 2011, the studio version premiered on Florence and the Machine's official website.

[14] A writer for the Los Angeles Times wrote that the song consisted of "soaring gospel-rooted harmonies and tribal chants on top of ethereal harp strings and intense lyrics".

[9] Commenting the sound of the song, Jillian Mapes of Billboard said that "'What the Water Gave Me' crescendos with a tribal intensity, balancing chants against an airy, whimsical harp".

[16] Spin's William Goodman called the song "a surge of gospel-tinged pop with harp, piano, and throbbing bass driving under Welch's powerful vocals"[3] Writing for the website HitFix, Katie Hasty said: "the harp line is just about the lightest part of the song, as the bass is overdriven and choirs, major crash cymbals and Welch's quiet-loud-quiet dynamics make for sad, bombastic, rattling – yet euphoric – poetry".

[14] A writer for The Guardian wrote that in the song, "Welch [is] mixing images of suicide with declarations of undying love over fluttering harp and robust guitar".

[19] Simon Vozick-Levinson of Rolling Stone magazine gave it a rating of three-and-a-half stars, writing that the song "opens softly, with Welch cooing slightly spooky pastoral poetry ("Time, it took us to where the water was")".

[21] Bill Lamb of the website About.com gave the song five out of five stars and complimented the powerful concept, the "explosion" of musical joy in the closing minutes, Welch's engaging, ethereal vocals and the haunting words.

He added that "for the final two minutes of the song restraint is abandoned and Florence and the Machine unleash something that sounds simply like revelatory joy".

[14] Writing for the website HitFix, Katie Hasty concluded: "For a song that goes for 5+ minutes, about a legendary writer that drowns herself, titled for a famous painted work and performed by Florence + The Machine, the word 'epic' is perfectly acceptable".

[17] James Montgmery of MTV News praised the song calling it "epically massive" and added that it "seems destined to rule the festival circuit for the foreseeable future".

[29] The video shows footage of the band working with producer Paul Epworth during recording sessions at Abbey Road Studios, interspersed with shots of Welch performing the song.

[7][30] A writer of the magazine Rolling Stone praised the video saying that it founds the band "pushing their secular gospel sound to an explosive extreme".

[21] Leah Collins writing for Dose concluded that the video contained several kaleidoscopic performances and added that "the glimpses of the studio" proves that it was "more raucous" because of the table-dancing.

[16] Emily Cronin of the British Elle stated, "the video packs all the witchy vocals and diaphanous gowns we could have hoped for into five and a half minutes, with a choir and one jaunty fedora thrown in".