Reviewing for "Rolling Stone" in 1971, Lenny Kaye hailed "The Cry of Love" as the authentic posthumous Hendrix album, his last work, and "a beautiful, poignant testimonial, a fitting coda to the career of a man who was clearly the finest electric guitarist to be produced by the Sixties, bar none". That same year, Robert Christgau wrote in "The Village Voice" that the album is an "excellent testament" and may be Hendrix's best record behind "Electric Ladyland" (1968) because of its quality as a whole rather than its individual songs. Years later, he said the album as whole is free-flowing, devoid of affectations, and "warmer than the three Experience LPs", while writing in "" (1981):