In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Mark Deming said of the album that "while was the most purely folk-oriented Fairport Convention album to date, it also rocked hard in a thoroughly original and uncompromising way". In June 2007, "Mojo" magazine listed "Liege & Lief" at number 58 in its list of "100 Records that changed the world". In his 2010 book on the UK folk-rock music scene "Electric Eden", author Rob Young devoted 13 pages to the "Liege and Lief" period and its resulting album, stating that the album "retains a coherence and integrity shared by very few British folk-rock records" and that in its music, "... Fate is exacted; English balladry displays its full menace and mystery; and there's a tentative reflection upon pain and loss, tainted by hard experience". For Patrick Humphries, on the other hand, writing in 1996, the album is less than 100% successful: "Come all Ye" sounds "rather forced", the band's reading of "The Deserter" is described as "pedestrian", and "Tam Lin" is described as "leaden" and the soloing on it as "timid"; he does, however, praise "Matty Groves" as "relish[ing the interplay between Swarbrick and Thompson", "Reynardine" for the quality of Denny's singing, the instrumental medley as giving Swarbrick's fiddle a chance to shine (along with Thompson's and Hutchings' guitar and bass contributions), "Crazy Man Michael" as "a substantial conclusion to the album", and "Farewell, Farewell" as "a flawless example of what Fairport were capable of at their peak."