On the Line (Jenny Lewis album)

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.0/10[4]
Metacritic	85/100[5]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
The A.V. Club	B+[7]
Chicago Tribune	[8]
The Daily Telegraph	[9]
The Independent	[10]
NME	[11]
Pitchfork	8.0/10[12]
Q	[13]
Rolling Stone	[14]
Uncut	7/10[15]

On the Line was met with widespread critical acclaim.[5] The Daily Telegraph called it "a smart, swaggering break-up album from a major talent",[9] while The Independent said Lewis "adds a California sheen to melancholy and nostalgia".[10] Robert Christgau was somewhat less impressed in Vice, giving it a three-star honorable mention. He said Lewis, "the rare 21st-century singer-songwriter whose level of craft renders her good enough for 76-year-old master drummer Jim Keltner", "loses the spring in her step that made her so 21st-century by proving it", naming as highlights the title track, "Rabbit Hole", and "Dogwood".[16]

In a year-end essay for Slate, Ann Powers cited On the Line as one of her favorite albums from 2019 and proof that the format is not dead but rather undergoing a "metamorphosis". She added that concept albums had reemerged through the culturally-relevant autobiographical narratives of artists such as Lewis, who "confronted the ghost of her mother by invoking the musical touchstones they had shared in the fearless On the Line".[17]