In a review for Pitchfork, Ilana Kaplan says the album is a more polished production then the band's debut with a little less funk, moving from "funk disco into a late '70s disco/early '80s synth phase, blurring genre lines," and Escort has "hit a nostalgic sweet spot that will never grow old."[4]
Andy Kellman of AllMusic states that "Animal Nature comes across more as the work of a band than of a studio project" and contains "references to specific disco and post-disco artists and bygone production touches less obvious, a little more concealed than they are on the 2011 album." The standout track is "Body Talk", which Kellman calls "a gleaming compound of early-'80s boogie and early-'90s house."[3]
Andy Battaglia of NPR says the members of the band are "vintage dance-music precisionists" but their goal for Animal Nature "is more than just disco in a wide-eyed sound that peers out to stare down the many decades since." He also praises the album's production value, calling it "slick and stylish and light — clearly in thrall to the sound it revisits."[5]
