Trouser Press noted that "there's certainly nothing lacking in the spare, well-crafted songwriting or Cole's frequently beauteous (and ever-breaking) shaggy-dog voice."
The Guardian opined that the album "passes in a comfy blur, only the melancholy 'Baby' making much impression."
The Irish Times concluded that Cole "seems to have regained the immediacy and simplicity which made him an icon of the bedsit set, and which put him right up there with Morrissey in the hearts of many thinking teens." The
Calgary Herald deemed Cole "a British Leonard Cohen in soft-soled shoes."
AllMusic called the album "melodic folk-rock" that presents a "negative world-view."
Mark Beaumont of
NME considered
Love Story to be Cole "stripped down" which, despite "some moments", is "not robust stuff" but largely "one man and his orchestra's trawl through the lite romance of familee life". ==Track listing==