"Rolling Stone" reviewed "Transatlanticism" and commented that it contained "melodic, melancholy songs about feeling both smart and confused, hopelessly romantic but wary of love." Gibbard's voice was described as "plaintive boy-next-door" "Entertainment Weekly" commented on the music on "Plans", saying "The lush arrangements are long on hothouse organs and pianos, but short on the squirmy guitars and squirrelly beats that, on Gibbard's best work, offset his sweet voice and borderline-maudlin poetics with a sense of emotional danger." The band's music on "Plans" was described by the "Dallas Morning News" as "a literate, whispery style, the kind of stuff that normally sounds better in headphones than in large venues".