Moody, Standard and Poor received generally favorable reviews from critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, it received an average score of 73% based on 15 reviews. Jonah Bayer of
Alternative Press said that "With their second full-length, these
Drive Like Jehu and
Hot Snakes alumni have peeled back the distorted layers to get to what lies at their core: seasoned songwriting." David Pott-Negrine of
Drowned in Sound praised the timeless sound of the album: "
Moody, Standard and Poor somehow manages to sound both old and new, like finding out a lost classic is actually a hot new band. Realistically, it could have been written and released at any point in the last 50 years." Several critics complemented the sense of sonic space portrayed on the album. Bayer commented that "While
Moody, Standard and Poor features everything from surf-inflected rockers ('Everything Looks Better in the Sun') to post-everything
spaghetti Westerns ('New August'), the real brilliance lies in the sonic subtleties. It's all about perfect guitar tones, what frontman Rick Froberg ''doesn't'' say and the space Obits give their songs to breathe—even though it's evident it's not for lack of technical ability." ==Track listing==