"NME" gave the album a score of six out of ten: "It tails off towards the end, and TBS never quite shake the feeling that other people are doing this sort of thing far more thrillingly elsewhere." "Now" reviewer Evan Davies wrote that although the group's fans and label had expectations, it "doesn't mean you have to put out the exact same fucking album twice in a row." According to Davies, Taking Back Sunday writes two kinds of songs: "energetic pop rock with whiny vocals, and midtempo power rock, again with whiny vocals." Christian Hoard of "Rolling Stone" wrote that the group "amped up their sound," with Valentine "delivering a turbocharged attack spiked with dark, catchy melodies and giant choruses." Hoard called most of the album's songs "skull-rattling slasher with enough pop smarts to keep the heartbroken agony from becoming too much to handle." For "Stylus Magazine", Ian Cohen wrote that the album "tables the discussion" of whether Taking Back Sunday "embrace their arena destiny or disappear into the basement for cred that never really existed." Cohen concluded, "As was the case with pop-metal, 'albums' weren't the objective, so much as a few ace singles and album tracks that hold serve, which is "Louder Now" in a nutshell."