The album has a score of 72 out of 100 from Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[1]Trouser Press gave the album a very favorable review and called it "A stunning return to form."[10]The A.V. Club gave it a favorable review and said of Jay Farrar, "Even when his overintellectualized lyrics smear into a palette of industrial gray, the guitars provide a strong human heartbeat."[11]NME gave it a score of seven out of ten and said that "Farrar has the passion to carry the songs beyond any hackneyed themes."[1] Other reviews are average or mixed: Mojo gave the album three stars out of five and said, "By focusing on the temporal, [Farrar] reduces himself to simple protest music rather than timeless folk."[1]The New York Times gave it an average review and said, "The band's underlying, stubborn seriousness, and nearly Amish unwillingness to change, creates its appeal."[12]Blender, however, gave it two stars out of five and said that Farrar had "never tried so actively to fuse prescriptive politics into [the] mix, and the move feels suspect."[1]
