According to Metacritic, No Way There from Here has a score of 82, based on 8 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[1] Among the critics who reviewed the album favorably was Ann Powers of NPR, who described the twelve songs on the album as "deceptively lovely". Powers also wrote that on the album, Cantrell "...finds the most telling private moments in the days and nights of her characters and lays them out simply, with love."[9]Robert Christgau gave the album an A- grade, writing that "two [of Cantrell's] cowrites [on the album] with the darker and sharper Amy Allison are intensely flavorful: the pan-feminist “All the Girls Are Complicated” and the pining-for-my-guy “Can’t Wait.”"[7]