"Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" was acclaimed by critics upon release. Brent Sirota of "Pitchfork" gave the album a perfect 10 rating, noting that the album was "simply a masterpiece." David Fricke of "Rolling Stone" praised its resemblance to psychedelia while Allmusic writer Zac Johnson lauded its musical "complexity". E! Online said that its "rich, exotic flavor gets more intense the longer you chew on it", while "Stylus Magazine" called it "a great album, and an outstanding place for prospective new Wilco fans to start." "Billboard" gave it a favorable review and called it "a more adventurous and rewarding release". "The Austin Chronicle" gave it four stars out of five and said that "After a while -- a familiarity period if you will -- it becomes clear that these songs are not only fully realized, they're damn near brilliant." Playlouder gave it four stars out of five and called it "The most worth-the-wait long-awaited album in the world ... ever? Could be ..." "Uncut" also gave the album four stars out of five and said, "The most common description of this much-discussed album over the past few months is that YHF is Americana's "Kid A". In truth, it's more successful than that." "Blender" likewise gave it four stars out of five and stated: "Tweedy whittles down the arrangements and drops in enough experimental nuances to make the whole thing sound refreshingly lo-fi." "Q" likewise gave it four stars and called it "battered, bonkers and bewitching in equal parts" and that it "at last finds Wilco's 'interesting' phase become downright fascinating." Yahoo! Music UK gave it eight stars out of ten and said, "Tweedy takes conventional songforms birthed on his acoustic guitar and scrambles them completely, reassembled into fractured, dissonant epics with the help of the reliably brilliant Jim O'Rourke."