Old Wives' Tales (album)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[12]
Chicago Tribune	[10]
Robert Christgau	B[13]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[1]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide	[14]
Orlando Sentinel	[15]
Ottawa Citizen	[7]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[16]

The Chicago Reader called the album "a surpassingly melodic manifesto on what can only be called post-postpunk feminism and romanticism."^[17] The New York Times thought that, "as in X, Ms. Cervenka's lyrics conjure an American panorama of prosaic hopes and romantic friction."^[18] The Globe and Mail wrote that it is the "casual musical eclecticism, along with Exene's ability to toss off lines like 'She believes in a God who's all thumbs,' that make Old Wives' Tales interesting."^[19]

Robert Christgau stated: "Always a notebook-toter, she goes for the roots and poetry you'd expect—in other words, folk-rock."^[13] Trouser Press determined that "the tasteful and varied mixture of folk, country, recitation and sturdy rock isn’t that great a stylistic leap from the essence of X."^[20] The Orlando Sentinel concluded that if Cervenka "didn't have a punk-rock past, her solo debut might win her a place among country-Western New Traditionalists such as Lyle Lovett and K.D. Lang."^[15] The Toronto Star opined that, while Cervenka "doggedly wrestles with the empty romance of poverty-stricken America," the album "comes replete with suspect vocals and arrangements."^[21]

AllMusic called Old Wives' Tales "a charming, timeless album of mostly quiet, quirky folk music."^[12] The Rolling Stone Album Guide deemed the songs "wordy and pretentious."^[16]