Death Race for Love was met with a mixed reception. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an
average score of 61, based on 11 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 5.4 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. Reviewers generally praised the album's sound and blend of genres. Thomas Hobbs of
NME gave a positive 4 star (out of 5) review, stating "Juice Wrld is far less indulgent than
XXX[Tentacion], not getting lost in the idea that he's a messianic creative. This will be the moment that solidifies his status as one of rap's most exciting new stars". Scott Glaysher of
HipHopDX gave the album a 3.9 out of 5, and argued that; "Genre-blending albums (no matter how commonplace they might be these days) are not easy to pull off and for that, Juice Wrld should be given credit. From the seemingly sincere lyrics to the equally candid delivery, Juice truly goes with his gut in whichever way (rap, sing, hum, sob)". Most reviewers, however, took issues with the album's length and what was seen as poor writing, even in positive reviews.
Pitchforks Alphonse Pierre wrote, "Fifty percent of the lyrics are bad ("Back on my bullshit, devil emoji") and the other 50 percent are also bad, but then they get stuck in your head and ultimately turn good ("Tell me your darkest secret shit you wouldn't even tell Jesus"). ...
Death Race For Love feels like the real Juice Wrld, wearing his influences and heart on his sleeve, putting his ups and downs into the music in real time", and gave the album a 6.8 out of 10. Danny Schwartz of
Rolling Stone said in his 3 and half star (out of 5) review that, "
Death Race succeeded in its most fundamental mission, which was to prove that "
Lucid Dreams" was not a fluke. Songs like "
Fast", "Ring, Ring", "Hear Me Calling" strike a dynamic balance of raw charisma and profound anxiety... While his melodrama tends to grow old over the course of a 22-track, 72-minute album, it is captivating in small doses".
The Guardians Kate Hutchinson stated: "It's slim on features (only
Young Thug, Clever and
Brent Faiyaz) but big on misanthropic head-nodders that put Juice's
Fall Out Boy-style whine or raspy flow to the fore: he is more versatile than his peers and also more gifted... But ultimately, the suicide references of songs such as Empty and casual misogyny in the tauntingly violent Syphilis leave an uncomfortable taste.", and gave the album 3 stars out of 5. Steve "Flash" Juon of
RapReviews said at the end of his 6.5 out of 10 review that while he enjoyed the "catchy tunes" at times, that it was "hard to call them rap songs and even harder to ignore the subtext that drugs are both the cause of and solution to his problems. Irresponsible abuse of powerful narcotics or prescription medications solves nothing. It's easy to pretend Juice WRLD is just a fiction
[sic] character Jarad Higgins portrays for the sake of music, but too many of his peers have died over the years for me to safely assume it's all just a gimmick."
PopMatters critic Mike Schiller said, "The ratio of bangers to duds...is not great, and
Death Race for Love feels an awful lot like an unabridged teenage diary; while the occasional clever turn of phrase and moment of profundity is sure to bubble up, most of it is simple self-indulgence, an onslaught of pure emotion whose sincerity is never in question, but all of which starts to blur together after a mere few pages or songs". Fred Thomas was also critical of the album in the review for
AllMusic, stating "There's no shortage of highlights, but the lack of editing or focus means every song goes on a little too long and leads to another one that struggles to connect stylistically or emotionally".
Year-end lists Industry awards ==Commercial performance==