Train of Thought was well received by music critics. Chicago Sun-Times writer Kyla Kyles said,"With a flurry of metaphors and below-the-basement underground beats,this train is on the right track. This disc proves that Kweli is a deep-thinking,gifted MC,and Hi Tek is an emerging wax master."[5]AllMusic's Matt Conaway compared Reflection Eternal's music to the work of the Native Tongues collective,while writing that the album "houses enough merit to establish Talib as one of this generation's most poetic MCs".[1]PopMatters writer Dave Heaton described Talib Kweli as "a hyper-articulate MC with a revolutionary's mind and a sensitive poet's heart,but he's also a world-class battle MC,able to rip other MCs' rhymes apart in a quick second".[14] Kathryn Farr of Rolling Stone called Train of Thought "the rare socially aware hip-hop record that can get fists pumping in a rowdy nightclub".[11]
Pitchfork critic Sam Eccleston wrote of Kweli's boastful lyrics,"Kweli uses the rhythm as a foundation,building rambling,baroque rhyme structures on top of them,exhibiting his cock-eyed 'skills'. This kind of braggadocio doesn't weaken the effort in the same way his moralizing self-canonization does,if only because he can often back those claims up".[10] Noah Callahan-Bever of Vibe shared a similar sentiment,writing "Reflection Eternal's great weakness is Kweli's excessive preaching about the state of hip hop,but at least he cares".[2] In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004),Jon Caramanica called it "thick with fierce street raps ('Down for the Count' and 'Ghetto Afterlife'),maudlin soul ('Love Language'),and the type of insightful versifying Kweli has made his stock-in-trade ('Memories Live' and 'This Means You')".[15]
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