The album currently has a Metacritic score of 76, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[8]Rolling Stone stated the presence of guest musicians such as Beck and Noel Gallagher made Ohio Players "one of their best LPs".[12] Several reviews positively noted the Black Keys' ability to reinvent their sound while remaining in touch with their garage rock and blues roots.[14][15] A positive review from Pitchfork called the album "lively, fresh and colorful."[11] A mixed review from Slant Magazine felt the guest musicians caused The Black Keys to be lost in their own album, and criticized the song "Beautiful People (Stay High)" for sounding as if it was AI generated and trying hard to appeal to "lifestyle brands".[13] A mixed review from The Guardian called the album an "underwhelming diffusion of the band's once heady magic."[9]NME in comparison found the album to be too familiar, and stated the album showed how "The Black Keys might have a killer record collection but Ohio Players is the work of a band who are perhaps too good at being themselves."[10]
Following the album's release marking the first Black Keys album not to crack the Billboard Top 20 in 18 years and the sudden cancelation of the band's North American tour, Pitchfork contributor Stephen Thomas Erlewine restated his positive view of the album from his prior review but noted 2024 marked a year where a shift in cultural tastes had seemed to abandon the Black Keys.[16] Erlewine reiterated his positive opinion on the band's attempt to reinvent their sound on Ohio Players.
1 2 Erlewine, Stephen (April 5, 2024). "Ohio Players". pitchfork.com. Pitchfork. Retrieved April 5, 2024. Even the presence of rappers Lil Noid and Juicy J on "Candy and Her Friends" and "Paper Crown" recalls Blakroc, the duo's 2009 excursion into rap-rock, yet the fact that Black Keys have explicitly carved space for hip-hop on Ohio Players goes a long way in explaining why the album doesn't feel like a retread. Instead of siloing their interests, the group synthesizes them, making a record that feels lively, fresh, and colorful.
1 2 Winograd, Jeremy (April 1, 2025). "The Black Keys Ohio Players Review: A Crowded House". Slant Magazine. Retrieved April 2, 2024. A couple of tracks even sound A.I.-generated, none more so than the shockingly cynical 'Beautiful People (Stay High),' which feels like an attempt to reverse engineer the brief era when the music in every car commercial either ripped off or actually was a song from Brothers or El Camino.
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