Secular Hymns

Editors at AnyDecentMusic? rated this album a 7.2 out of 10, aggregating six scores.^[1] According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Secular Hymns received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 from six critic scores.^[2]

Editors at AllMusic rated this album 4 out of 5 stars, with critic Matt Collar writing that this album "finds the vocalist/guitarist delivering a stripped-down, largely acoustic set of warm, eclectic cover tunes... that's a 180-degree turn from her previous effort, 2013's ambitious homage to Ray Charles, The Blue Room.^[3] At The Arts Desk, Mark Kidel rated this album 3 out of 5 stars and characterized Peyroux as a "sultry cabaret chanteuse with shades of late-night jazz and the endemic melancholy of the blues" but complains that "this is blues lite, too clean for comfort".^[4] DownBeat's J. Poet gave 5 out of 5 stars to Secular Hymns and praised the ensemble on this recording: "Herington’s guitar adds blue, sliding, sustained notes that echo the crying tone of a steel guitar to support Peyroux’s somber vocal".^[5] John Fordham of The Guardian praised the combination of "intimate exuberance and classic songs" captured in the live-in-studio setting and rated this release 4 of 5 stars.^[6]

In The Irish Times Cormac Larkin rated Secular Hymns 3 out of 5 stars, ending "they’re the sort of songs that can sound hollow and insincere in the wrong hands, but Peyroux delivers every word like her life depends on it".^[7] Christopher Loudon of JazzTimes called the blending of blues music, Gospel music, and jazz "a marvelous mélange".^[8] The Observer's Dave Gelly scored this release 4 of 5 stars for "the warm intimacy of her voice and the incisive clarity of the arrangements".^[9] Writing for PopMatters, Steve Horowitz a 7 out of 10, summing up that "Peyroux offers fine performances, but they are hers and not the originals" and these songs are "mostly well-known classics from the past—they aren’t records meant to be broken but to be replayed again for their own merits".^[10]

1. "Got You on My Mind" (Howard Biggs and Joe "Cornbread" Thomas) – 4:30
2. "Tango Till They’re Sore" (Thomas Alan Waits) – 3:24
3. "The Highway Kind" (Townes Van Zandt) – 2:47
4. "Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On)" (Allen Toussaint) – 3:16
5. "If the Sea Was Whiskey" (Leonard Caston and Willie Dixon) – 3:07
6. "Hard Times Come Again No More" (Stephen Foster) – 4:17
7. "Hello Babe" (Lil Green and Kansas Joe McCoy) – 3:11
8. "More Time" (Linton Kwesi Johnson) – 3:23
9. "Shout Sister Shout" (Bill Doggett, Lucky Millinder, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe) – 2:42
10. "Trampin’" (traditional) – 3:01

• Madeleine Peyroux – acoustic guitar, vocals, arrangement on "Trampin'", production, liner notes

Additional musicians

• Jon Herington – electric guitar, vocals, arrangement on "Hard Times Come Again No More"
• Barak Mori – upright bass, vocals

Technical personnel

• Cynthia Herbst – session coordination
• Daniel Herst – session assistance
• Doug Dawson – audio engineering
• Farida Bachir – session coordination
• Francesca Burton – session assistance
• Fred Gillham – session coordination
• Joe Jones – assistant engineering
• Mary Maurer – design at 2310 Design
• Michael Lau Robles – design at 2310 Design
• Shervin Lainez – photography
• Staurt Bruce – audio engineering, mixing, audio mastering at Bruce Audio, Bradford On Avon, England, United Kingdom
• Yves Beauvais – sequencing