Not Dark Yet (album)

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.3/10[5]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
Rolling Stone	[7]
Paste Magazine	8.8[8]
PopMatters	[9]
The Observer	[10]
The Irish Times	[11]
Exclaim!	8/10[12]
Spectrum Culture	[13]

AllMusic's Thom Jurek says, "Despite singing together since they were old enough to talk, it took a lifetime for sisters Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer to record together."^[6]

Will Hermes reviewed the album for Rolling Stone and gave it 3½ out of a possible 5 stars. He writes, "the title track is the crown jewel, showing the river-deep musicality of a latter-day Dylan croaker when it’s parsed by immaculate, blood-kin harmony."^[7]

Paste Magazine's Jon Young rates this album an 8.8 and says, "Not Dark Yet works beautifully. Featuring nine covers and one devastating original, this lovely longplayer spotlights their tangy harmonies, with Lynne’s saltier vocals and Moorer’s sweeter singing intertwining gracefully, evoking ancient traditions of family music-making."^[8]

PopMatters' Richard Driver gives the album 8 out of a possible 10 and writes, "The most surprising element to this enjoyable and thoughtful album is that this is their first duet album. That the songs are covers is ultimately irrelevant to the care, arrangements, and deliberate duet Lynne and Moorer deliver, the songs finding their strength and shared focus to push ahead after loss."^[9]

The album debuted at No. 8 on both the Billboard's Americana/Folk Albums and Independent Albums charts,^[14][15] and No. 39 on Top Country Albums,^[16] with 3,700 copies sold in the first week.^[17] It has sold 6,400 copies as of September 2017.^[18]