With Light and with Love

Critical reception

With Light and with Love received largely positive reviews from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 79, based on 19 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".

Ian Cohen of Pitchfork Media gave the album a positive review, stating, "The versatility of Woods becomes more evident throughout the album, as they spread outwards rather than building upward: you get B3-infused soul (“Leaves Like Glass”), breezy psychedelia (“New Light”) and darker shades of American Beauty (“Shining”), giving jamband types, roots fans, folkies, indie kids and DIY fetishists a place to link up. “Breakthrough”, “masterpiece”, “bold leap”—those aren’t words that really seem applicable to With Light and With Love, or Woods for that matter, but they’re allowing themselves to be extremely likable for a larger crowd."

Fred Thomas of AllMusic praised the album, stating, "The album is easily the most solid offering from the Woods camp to date, besting even the production of its incredibly strong predecessor and presenting the songs with even more clarity and interesting choices than ever before." Carey Hodges of Paste also acclaimed the album, stating, "Even the most drawn-out, mind-bending stretches on the album serve a purpose, managing to avoid sounding like sonic filler."

Philip Cosores of Consequence of Sound was more critical of the album, stating, "While With Light and With Love might sound more instantly accessible than previous Woods albums, it also shows that it might not be a good thing for Woods to tinker with their most defining quality: the intimacy of their songs."

Personnel