The Coincidentalist

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	78/100[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Exclaim!	[3]
The Independent	[4]

The Coincidentalist received very good ratings. Andy Gill, from The Independent, praised most of the songs, calling the album "a set of relaxed songs", and gave it 3 out of 5 stars. Mojo magazine, with 4 out of 5 stars, wrote that "it's his excellently loose band (featuring M. Ward and Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley), intimate vocals and fondness for chimes that keep the disintegrating threads woven together". NOW magazine, Exclaim!, Blurt Magazine, and Magnet gave the album 4 out of 5 stars.

AllMusic gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, writing: "The Coincidentalist is one of Gelb's most realized efforts; despite its relaxed, airy presentation, it's musically and lyrically provocative, as poetic, strange, and mysterious as the desert itself."

Tucson Weekly, a newspaper from Gelb's hometown, wrote that "it's mixed up close, like an intimate, whispered confidence, as if Gelb were spinning old stories in the privacy of your living room."