""The Village Voice" journalist Robert Christgau gave "A Rose Is Still a Rose" an A rating and noted that "none of these 11 songs aspires to the declarative tunes and pungent phrases of the soul era, and at 55 Aretha is losing her high end.But after a decade in artistic seclusion, she had something to prove, and she did – with an album as audacious and accomplished as such great Wexlers as "Spirit in the Dark" or "Young, Gifted and Black"."