"Midnite Vultures" was praised by most critics, and the album holds a score of 83 at Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Jon Pareles of "Rolling Stone" remarked that on "Midnite Vultures", Beck "plays the insider, riding the executive plane through the good life with every need fulfilled." Richard Cromelin of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that he gives the album "a cinematic richness, depth and detail with an array of mutations and surprises, from banjo hoedown to electronic effects". The "NME" felt that the album, while narrower in scope than "Odelay", is "more immediate in impact".