Upon its release,
The Incredible Machine received generally mixed reviews from most music critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an
average score of 52, based on 11 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". Bill Brotherton of the
Boston Herald gave it an 'A' rating, and was in high praise of the album, noting Nettles' voice, comparing it to that of
Melissa Etheridge, and noted the change of their country sound, saying, "as enjoyable as their previous albums have been, few could have predicted a work as jaw-droppingly incredible as this. Country it is not, and that might peeve some fans. This is a flat-out mainstream rock record." Rick Moore of
American Songwriter gave it a four star rating, noting that the album was a drastic change in sound from their previous albums, and that "with
The Incredible Machine, Sugarland has distanced itself even more from the Nashville mainstream [...] and this may well be the biggest country album this year that relies so much on keys; No fiddles or steel are anywhere to be found", and was in high praise of it, saying, "but as a project,
The Incredible Machine succeeds big time, and may make these guys even less welcome to certain factions of Music Row as they continue to change the face of what is considered “country”." Sarah Rodman of
The Boston Globe was in favor of the album, saying the duo was "on their game" with the release. She complimented the "[expansion of] the [music] playing field" that is on the album, and concluded saying "Is it
country? Given the fluctuating definition of the format over the last 20 years some of it is and some of it isn’t. But the bigger question with any record regardless of genre should always be is it good? And
The Incredible Machine is very good indeed". Jessica Phillips of
Country Weekly gave it a three-stars-out-of-five rating, saying that the songs sounded "overly calculated", and that "Overall, the album more closely resembles pop punk and arena rock than what’s generally considered "country" music." Jon Caramanica of
The New York Times gave it an average review. He criticized the sound and songwriting on the album, referring to some of the tracks as "reggae" and "gothic", and said the songwriting "lean[s] on bland inspirational platitudes or mystical gobbledygook". Thom Jurek of
AllMusic gave it a 2½-stars-out-of-five rating, and largely criticized the production of the album, saying, "while much is being made of how brave and challenging this record is, it's not.
The Incredible Machine is a collection of (mostly) competent if unremarkable songs, held together by slick-- often sterile --production." J. Edward Keyes of
Rolling Stone also gave it a 2½ rating, and criticized the sound of the album, saying, "Any remnants of country music left in Sugarland are wiped clean on
The Incredible Machine, replaced by spit-shined arena pop [...] Sugarland are ruthless in their desire to leave no radio-ready trick untried, but in the end it's too much machine, not enough heart." Mario Tarradell of
The Dallas Morning News gave it a 'C−' rating, criticizing Nettles' "grating" voice on the record and saying it "mak[es] the disc immediately hard-to-take". Randy Lewis of
Los Angeles Times gave it 2½ stars out of four, saying it "might easily have [been] subtitled,
The Arena Rock Album." Jonathan Keefe of
Slant Magazine was highly critical of the album, giving it a 1½ star rating. He criticized the sound of the album, saying "The choice of imagery never resolves into a greater aesthetic, which is disappointing, but the problems with styling are far less troubling than
The Incredible Machine's actual music; [it] does stand to alienate at least some portion of their core fanbase, because it isn't a country album. Not even a little bit." Kevin John Coyne of Country Universe gave the album a 1½ star rating, referring to it as a "terrible album, an unmitigated disaster that manages to fail in ways that shouldn’t even be possible."
Uncut gave the album only one star out of five and said, "The downhome strum of 'Stuck Like Glue' has a certain charm—at least until its horrific cod-dancehall break down—but fails to redeem a depressingly calculated record." ==Commercial performance==