In the "NME", Siobhan Grogan called the song almost perfect, writing that "it's wistful in all the right places and makes sadness sound rather alluring like only the bitterest love songs can." Grogan also compared it to "Pure Shores" saying that it "has the same mellow, glossy haziness to it, as if they recorded it lying down." Similarly, Eva Simpson of the "Daily Mirror" wrote that the track "brought the same high-gloss sheen" as "Pure Shores" and cited it as a curtain raiser for "Saints & Sinners". A "Western Mail" reviewer viewed the two songs as "equally tremendous", while "The Guardian"s Caroline Sullivan found "Black Coffee" superior, describing it as "beguiling treatment of a domestic scenario" and "easily the most alluring depiction of a bleary-eyed morning routine ever recorded." Sullivan also said All Saints "lend radiance to [Orbit's] twinkling fairy lights." Lindsay Baker from the same newspaper deemed it "Saints & Sinners" "particularly infectious" track, while R.S. Murthi of the "New Straits Times" called it the album's most endearing song, likening it to releases by the Cocteau Twins. In a negative review, "Hot Press" magazine's John Walshe dismissed the group's harmonies as "so saccharine they could have been copyrighted by NutraSweet".