Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.0/10[2]
Metacritic	83/100[3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Chicago Tribune	[4]
Cuepoint (Expert Witness)	B+[5]
The Daily Telegraph	[6]
The Independent	[7]
The Irish Times	[8]
Mojo	[9]
Q	[10]
Record Collector	[11]
Uncut	8/10[12]

The album received acclaim from music critics. "[T]hough this doesn't always sound like an album where Williams is challenging herself musically, for a musician who has long believed in the power of nuance, this is an album that feels unerringly right for her, full of sweet and sour blues, acoustic pondering, and simple, bare bones rock & roll that slips into the groove with Williams' literate but unpretentious songs," writes Mark Deming at AllMusic.[1] The New York Times says, "On past albums Ms. Williams has portrayed herself at moments of rage, excess and grief; now she prefers stability. Her songs are fully aware of wounds and pitfalls, but they’re more likely to be looking back or looking outward."[13] Tom Moon writes at NPR, "She's always been able to conjure brokenhearted misery from a single note; now, she can ramp up to fury that quickly, too. And resignation. And let's face it: In terms of pure expression, no singer in popular music can touch Williams when she's calling from the lonely outskirts of Despairville. She sounds like it's her permanent residence, that place down deep where the spirit meets the bone."[14]

The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 13 on its release.[15] It also debuted at No. 1 on the Folk Albums and No. 2 on the Top Rock Albums charts, with 20,000 copies sold for the week.[16] The album has sold 92,000 copies in the US as of January 2016.[17]