Yours Truly, the Commuter was generally well received by critics. AllMusic called it "a gorgeously atmospheric record, a panorama of lush California landscapes filtered through the lonely lens of winter air and rural, mountainous terrain. There's a familiar mix of electronics and acoustic instruments here, but they're linked together more discreetly than before", calling it "more cohesive than many of those past [Grandaddy] albums".[2]Pitchfork wrote: "Yours Truly, the Commuter sounds an awful lot like a Grandaddy album – not just another Grandaddy album, though, but a really good one, the best since Sumday."[9]
Less favourable was The A.V. Club, writing: "Lytle settles for repetitive mood-setters that merely re-shuffle the elements he's been working with for more than a decade now, with no discernible progress or mastery."[3]