The first half of "Cryptograms" was called "the problem child" by Kevin Elliott of "Stylus Magazine", characterizing this child as having been "medicated at a young age to subdue constant anxiety and the fear of death, overly mired in thoughts of regret and anguish, overwhelmed with ideas and insight." Mike Schiller of "PopMatters" found that because the second half of "Cryptograms" "fixateon examples of Deerhunter's songcraft, which is actually somewhat average", the use of delay effects "mask[s whatever deficiencies in musicianship Deerhunter might choose to hide". He believes the potential seen in the first half of the album is lost in the second. AllMusic writer Marisa Brown felt the band's ambient music is used to the extent that it becomes "commonplace, despite its avant-garde leanings." The writer found that when Deerhunter "aims for the provocative and the esoteric", the band often "overreachand end[s up hitting something much more ordinary, predictably "experimental"…in a genre that's supposed to be anything but." Dom Sinacola of Cokemachineglow stated that all of "Cryptograms" "sounds, as a whole, too coherently cold", the tracks "Providence" and "Heatherwood" being exceptions.