On release, Ben Gerson of "Rolling Stone" described "All Things Must Pass" as "eloquently hopeful and resigned" while labelling the album "the music of mountain tops and vast horizons". "Beatles Forever" author Nicholas Schaffner noted in 1977, with reference to Harrison's commercial and critical dominance over his former bandmates following the break-up: "The very fact that the Beatles had kept George's flowering talents so under wraps proved to be his secret weapon." Schaffner named "All Things Must Pass" and "Beware of Darkness" as the two "most eloquent" songs on "All Things Must Pass", "musically as well as lyrically", with "mysterious, seductive melodies, over which faded strings and horns hover like Blue Jay Way fog".