In
Have Not Been the Same, the authors note that "the initial response was mixed" due to the "darkness" of the album and its stemming "from the unconscious." Although
AllMusic.com's rating is a lukewarm 3 out of 5, the review calls the album's "signature lyrical mysteries... lush, but much more dark-spirited" than previous albums. "
Day for Night stands on the minimalism of Downie's poignancy -- nothing is overproduced and the songs themselves are left alone to arrive on their own." In
Chart, Jason Schneider wrote that this was the album that made The Tragically Hip more than "just a rock 'n' roll band... miraculously, the vast distances they had been absorbing for the previous five years merged with the equally limitless vistas of
Gord Downie's imagination via a
Daniel Lanois-inspired sonic canvas.
Day For Night got inside the Canadian psyche in a terrifying way that simple nationalistic tall tales never could. The songs remain gloriously impenetrable, but their landscapes feel like home." In ''
ChartAttack's'' three Top 50 Canadian Albums of All Time polls, the album placed #37 in 1996, #13 in 2000 and #21 in 2005. ==Track listing==