The Haunted Man received generally positive reviews from music critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an
average score of 78, based on 36 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
Pitchforks Marc Hogan named
The Haunted Man "one of the year's most beguiling albums", writing that it "sounds like effort magnificently realized. The rawness of feeling is achieved through equally raw ambition." Ben Hewitt of
NME commented that "while
The Haunted Man deals in less trinkets than its predecessor, it's not scant in splendour. Instead, for large swathes, it's like being plunged into a fairytale soundtracked by skin-prickling electro and populated by downtrodden sods hunting for breadcrumbs of comfort."
Rolling Stones
Will Hermes praised the album as Khan's "sexiest, spookiest LP", stating that "the visions here seem all her own. And they're pretty awesome."
Spins Julianne Escobedo Shepherd felt that it was "strongest in its simplest moments".
The Guardian critic
Alexis Petridis wrote that
The Haunted Man "sounds like a bold, confident album that strips away a lot of the sonic embellishments from Khan's sound", adding that "[p]erhaps it's the sound of someone who's worked out that less can sometimes be more, that not trying too hard isn't the same as not trying."
Q noted a sense of clarity on the album "that comes from the sense of physical boundaries being pushed, of personal space being tested to its limits". Heather Phares of
AllMusic opined, "Focus and restraint might not sound exciting in and of themselves, but
The Haunted Man is more direct than any of Bat for Lashes' previous work, and manages to keep the air of mystique around Khan that has made her one to watch and listen to since her early days."
Slant Magazines Kevin Liedel viewed that "while the album's comparatively restrained arrangements occasionally wilt in the face of Khan's fierce melodrama,
The Haunted Man is still a worthy, often gorgeous entry in the Bat for Lashes canon." In a mixed review,
Annie Zaleski of
The A.V. Club critiqued that Khan's "moody charisma and piercing vocals ensure the album is still an enjoyable listen. All the same, it's disappointing that
The Haunted Mans beauty is too often only skin deep." Despite citing the album as Khan's "strongest yet",
The Observers
Kitty Empire felt that it "does not [...] deal the killer blow of originality that by now Khan should have in her power", concluding that "
The Haunted Man is an assured and sonically seductive record—if only it didn't echo a little too often the sound of other women's work." Andy Gill of
The Independent argued that "[t]here are moments on
The Haunted Man when Natasha Khan's marshalled musical forces evoke exactly the right ambience for songs pivoting on the notion of renewal. But sometimes the recurrent mood of ecstatic affirmation of life that's evident in her singing can be short-changed by arrangements that fuss to no great purpose, dissipating their impact in brittle beats and pointless detail."
Neil McCormick of
The Daily Telegraph expressed that although the album "occasionally draw[s] blood", it "doesn't live up to its stripped and dangerous cover", adding, "For every song that opens up and invites you in to experience the startling wonders of [Khan's] private world, there's another that just hangs like a gauzy veil of unusual sounds and vague lyrics, not so much impenetrable as too insubstantial to be worth the effort of investigation."
Accolades ==Commercial performance==