Trouble Maker 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 69, based on ten reviews. Shane Baldwin of
Record Collector praised the album, writing: "
Trouble Maker is up there with their best". Dan Weiss of
Consequence of Sound wrote: "there's no formal breakthroughs on
Trouble Maker beyond the astounding economy, unless you think the harmonica on "Buddy" or
Clash-goes-"Ring of Fire" chords on "Telegraph Avenue" makes this the band's
folk-punk album". Zoe Camp of
Pitchfork resumed: "while
Trouble Maker doesn't usurp the band's primordial peak, it's far and wide their strongest effort since 2000's excellent
self-titled". Nick Roseblade of
Drowned in Sound called the album "a return to force for Rancid, and is the musical equivalent of a football team winning a major trophy after years in the wilderness and the absolute elation that comes with that. However there is a downside", and added "Rancid could have released
Trouble Maker at any point since they began". In mixed reviews,
AllMusic's Tim Sendra stated: "like their disappointing 2014 album
...Honor Is All We Know,
Trouble Maker is the sound of a band going through the motions, telling the same stories over and over, bashing out the same riffs, and ultimately not connecting any punches". John Paul of
PopMatters found the album "more of the same; retreads of staid ideas, sounds and themes better suited to teenage ennui". ==Background and recording==