Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit received widespread acclaim from music critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 88, based on 35 reviews. Eric R. Danton, reviewing the album for
Paste magazine, said that
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit was "one of the most compulsively listenable albums to come out so far this year."
Everett True wrote in
The Guardian that the album improves upon each listen because "it's been a while since western rock music – let alone Melbourne's fiercely insular and often too-precious indie scene – has thrown up a songwriter and lyricist as intriguing, compelling and down-to-earth, yet surreal and morbidly funny, as Barnett." In
Cuepoint,
Robert Christgau said Barnett's music has a "drive and focus" it did not have before, complemented by her passionate singing and a lyrical style reminiscent of
John Prine and
Jens Lekman but still "herself": "Formally, her songs are confessional, only they describe her material life and conflicted feelings acutely rather than dreamily, so that the songs occur in and are inflected by a deftly rendered physical and social world." In a less enthusiastic review, Christopher Monk of
musicOMH called
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit "a likeable, enjoyable album rather than a great one", writing that "the craft of Barnett's words dwarfs that of her music...there are too many compositions here that feel underwritten."
Rolling Stone ranked "Pedestrian at Best" at number 4 on its annual year-end list to find the best songs of 2015.
Accolades Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit received eight nominations at the
ARIA Music Awards of 2015, including for
Album of the Year,
Best Rock Album and
Best Independent Release. On 7 October, Barnett won the
ARIA Award for Best Cover Art, part of the artisan ARIA awards, for her self drawn cover. On 26 November, Barnett also won
Best Female Artist,
Breakthrough Artist and Best Independent Release. She lost to
Tame Impala's
Currents for Album of the Year and Best Rock Album. Barnett was nominated for
Best New Artist at the
2016 Grammy Awards. Barnett was announced as the winner of the 2015
Australian Music Prize award which is given for the best Australian album release of the year. At the
J Awards of 2015, the album won Australian Album of the Year. ==Track listing==