the album so far has a score of 64 out of 100 from metacritic based on four "generally favorable reviews". stephen thomas erlewine of allmusic rated it 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote that "sweeter benefits from greater textures in his surroundings, stronger hooks in the melodies, and, for once, a sensibility that doesn’t sacrifice the present for the sake of paying respect to the past." jody rosen from "rolling stone" gave the album a positive review, stating that: "the 10 songs on sweeter, degraw's fourth album, are taut, efficient and hook-packed, with guitars bolstering the big choruses. degraw is an excellent singer, with a hint of grit in his tenor that tips power ballads like "soldier" toward soul music." melissa maerz wrote a positive review for "entertainment weekly", saying that "there's a half-dozen good ones on his fourth full-length "sweeter" (check the title track). too bad the other half's weighed down by painfully mopey, girl-done-left-me blues." ken capobianco wrote a more mixed review for "the boston globe", stating, "the results are predictably formulaic, as seen on their co-writing effort, 'not over you'." ian drew of "us weekly" wrote favorably that "though these 10 short tracks tend to sound a bit same-y, it's hard not to get into hearing the singer's warm, gruff voice back at work, especially on the lively title track." musicomh's andy baber wrote that "sweeter is often an enjoyable listen, one that will appease his one tree hill fanbase. however, with four albums now to his name, degraw should be looking to broaden his musical style and take some more risks. barring a couple of exceptions, sweeter is on the whole a timid affair, one that is all too forgettable." on the other hand, irving tan of sputnikmusic criticized the album, giving it a score of one-and-a-half out of five and saying that it "ends up passing by in a haze of indifference because, even though it has all the gilded sheen of a pop product engineered and marketed to perfection, at its core it is trite, grossly unmemorable, and unmistakably insincere – even by vanilla pop’s relatively shallow standards."