Reviewing "Give Up" for AllMusic, Heather Phares opined that while the album does not measure up to either Gibbard or Tamborello's main projects, it is nonetheless "far more consistent and enjoyable than might be expected." Michaelangelo Matos of "Rolling Stone" described the album as "a cuddly little new wave reverie" and wrote that "Tamborello's delightful pings and whistles fit Gibbard's whimsy perfectly." Devon Powers of "PopMatters" remarked that "like any worthy match, the coming together gives each aspect assets that they'd be wont to find otherwise", concluding that the album "integrates the human and the humanoid to give soundtrack to the disconnected, yet earnest escapades of contemporary emotional life." In a retrospective piece for "Pitchfork", Matt LeMay called the album "a pretty damned strong record, and one with enough transcendent moments to forgive it its few substandard tracks and ungodly lyrical blunders".