The Fall received mixed to positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, The Fall has an average score of 67, based on 25 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album a 6.6 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. Praise focused on the album's unique qualities and experimental nature, with Rolling Stone stating that the album was "a wistfully spaced-out, subtly cheeky spin on the road-trip epic" and NME calling it "quiet but ambitious". However, some critics felt that it lacked the offerings of previous Gorillaz albums, with The Guardian stating that it was "oddly out of character" compared to Plastic Beach.
