Critical reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Consequence of Sound |    [1] |
Lewis Corner of Digital Spy gave the album a review stating: "Each track nods to the album's namesake by being acutely aware of unobtainable aspirations, but accepting the stark reality nonetheless. Kodaline are not offering a complete folk redesign - albeit some songs lean more towards indie rock than their contemporaries' efforts - but In A Perfect World is packed with enough heart and soul to make it an enjoyable debut."[2]
Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian also gave the album a review stating: "It's hard to believe, but a decade of Coldplay hasn't sated the public's appetite for music made with a figurative wind machine gushing in the wings. Case in point: the debut by this young Dublin quartet, whose speciality is the gusty, disconsolate anthem, is expected to chart at No 1 this week. It will likely hang around the top 10 for months, because Kodaline have already mastered the craft of piling chorus upon unshakable chorus. Most of these 11 songs contain a killer hook, such as the one that transforms High Hopes from wobbly-lipped ballad to hair-tearing tearjerker. Singer Steve Garrigan has modelled himself on vocalists who are experts at jerking the tears, including Art Garfunkel and Keane's Tom Chaplin, in the service of songs that require him constantly to sound as if he's on the verge of a seizure. All told, there's a lot of bodice-ripping emotion to take in, and it's this, rather than the lack of original ideas, that makes In a Perfect World hard to take in large doses."[3]
