 Upon its release, the album received generally mixed reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 64, based on 19 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Some writers noted and praised the heavy use of electronic, bass and funk beats, while others suggest The Neptunes were unable to blend R & B and rock. Anthony Henriques of PopMatters lauded the production, saying that "their signature drums and spaced-out samples sound as good as ever here", going on to say "[t] he overall balance between live and electronic instrumentation is also the best they have managed on any of the N.E.R.D. albums". He compared the album to M.I.A. ' s Kala as "one of the best genre-blurring club records". However, Andy Kellman of Allmusic felt the songs "still have a way of seeming as easy and carefree as the moments when N.E.R.D. are simply bashing away … blowing off steam, and talking ridiculous nonsense". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian pointed out that the songs were "largely about sex", calling it "wearisome". Ian Cohen of Pitchfork Media called the album a "baffling, obnoxious mess". Adrian Ruhi of Okayplayer gave the album a score of 88 out of 100 and called some of the songs "a dynamic mess", but noted it was "a good thing".
