Thom Jurek of AllMusic stated about the album, "Based on the profundity of its content and the jagged beauty in its execution, Now belongs in the pantheon of culturally important works" that "join socio-political polemics to spirituality and kaleidoscopically expressive art in edifying all who encounter them."[1] Pitchfork's Steven Arroyo remarked that "NOW bleeds with the awareness that tomorrow is never guaranteed. The most self-affirming thing that you can do, then, is to claim your time, to fill it with your own noise."[2] Stereogum wrote "NOW is a document of a historic, shuddering year in real time, and as such it is not so much a definitive statement or a piece of documentary for something we were all still living through,"[4] while All About Jazz described Now as "a mix of spoken word, jazz, gospel and other retained Africanisms."[3] The New York Times stated "On Now, Locks purposely left studio chatter on the album to underline the band's kinship."[5]
