 "Hot Press" wrote "If Rice really was a nervous wounded-wing, there's no way he'd skirt as close to Nick Drake comparisons as he does on 'The Animals Are Gone'", and, in a reference to the 'noise' preceding the first track, "there's another noise that can be made out faintly but distinctly – the sound of the Grays, LaMontagnes, Johnsons and the Blunts of this world breaking their pencil tips on their jotters in sheer envy and frustration.