 "Pitchfork" said "The gorgeous, backward-looking beauty of past releases like "Coles Corner"... has shifted toward something more dark, ambient, and withdrawn.It may be too slow for many, but it's more measured than it is mundane... Hawley can sound too stripped down this time out, and the two songs that hover near the 10-minute mark overplay the appeal of minimal compositions and Hawley's sweet croon" but ultimately "Hawley's mined a specific vein of emotion for years, and it's a testament to his skill that his hyper-local focus maintains such a broad appeal".Drowned in Sound noted the bleakness of the record, saying that Hawley "lends his uniquely melancholic voice to a uniquely melancholic album, even by his standards... "Truelove's Gutter" isn't all blackness, but even at its few hopeful moments there are those tinges of pessimism and cynicism that prevent it from ever being rose coloured.