To What End was met with generally favorable reviews from
music critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an
average score of 75, based on four reviews. Grant Jones of RapReviews found the album "that grows on the listener", adding: "it does have a few tracks that sound like they could have been from older albums and the shorter track lengths I can't ignore, but there are great tracks here to appease any self-respecting hip-hop fan seeking something more genuine and soulful in their 2023 playlists". Thomas Stremfel of
Spectrum Culture wrote: "
To What End, while an overwhelmingly positive record, explores one of his core principles from multiple angles, and for every angle he approaches from, he finds either a clever, inspiring or fun way to turn it into a song". Dylan Green of
Pitchfork wrote: "a handful of the beats skew generic—closing tracks "The Way", with its sleepy
Wreckx-n-Effect sample, and "Race", in particular, play like car-commercial music—but
To What End avoids defaulting to a rapper spitting with a backing band".
AllMusic's Paul Simpson stated: "Oddisee is a pro at boiling a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions down to concise, relatable songs, and
To What End contains some of his most deeply personal work to date". Quentin B Huff of
PopMatters resumed: "Oddisee more than holds his own while weaving his nimble lyricism across his diverse soundscape". ==Track listing==