The Lateness of the Hour (album)

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	58/100[7]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic (Jon O'Brien)	[8]
Drowned in Sound (Robert Leedham)	(4/10)[9]
The Independent (Andy Gill)	[10]
Mojo	[7]
musicOMH (Ben Hogwood)	[11]
Pitchfork (Ian Cohen)	(3.7/10)[12]
Uncut	[7]

The album got mixed impressions via Metacritic, which it received a 58 out of a possible 100 points.[7] The Lateness of the Hour got a few favourable ratings from the critics, and those come from Mojo, who gave the album a four-out-of-a-possible-five-stars.[7] They called the album "A majorly impressive debut."[7] Furthermore, the other one came from The Independent, who gave the album a four-out-of-a-possible-five-stars, and Andy Gill said the album was "An impressive debut, albeit one light on lyrical depth."[10]

The mixed reviews came in from AllMusic, who gave the album a three-out-of-a-possible-five-stars, and Jon O'Brien wrote that the album "appears to be more concerned with creating a bold statement of intent than in showcasing Clare's undeniable talents."[8] In addition, Drowned in Sound gave it a mixed impression review with a four-out-of-a-possible-ten, when Robert Leedham stated "Alex Clare is a fairly gifted gentleman. But here his talents have been squandered on a collection of songs that fail to establish him as either a dance-pop titan or an emotive warbler. It is [...] a shame that anyone thought dubstep, or several of the genre's hallmarks, could be so crudely co-opted into an obviously unwieldy vehicle."[9] To this, Uncut gave the album a two-out-of-a-possible-five-stars, and they noted "Much of it is a coffee-table approximation of the producer duo's more irreverent work."[7] On a more upbeat note, musicOMH gave the album a three-out-of-a-possible-five-stars because as Ben Hogwood noted "Is it dubstep? In parts. Is it soulful? When it wants to be. But perhaps the most crucial question is whether it shows potential or not – and happily for Clare the answer is affirmative. With a little more focus and a natural approach, he could find himself a unique voice that sits outside of the styles he is trying to embrace."[11]

The lone highly negative review came in from Pitchfork, who gave the album a 3.7-out-of-a-possible-ten points, and Ian Cohen wrote that "...Lateness never does much to prove Clare and his producers were on the same page (let alone reading from the same book)...Truth is, it's much easier getting mad at the marketing plan of Lateness of the Hour than the record itself: The total mismatch of artistic motivation makes everyone involved come off like innocent bystanders, not manipulators."[12]

The album performed poorly when it was first released in the UK where it debuted at number 156 in the chart.[13] After the launch of the advert for Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 where the song "Too Close" was used, it sold 10 times better than they imagined it to sell.[13] It peaked at number 17 in the UK chart.

The album entered the Billboard 200 at number 123 with sales of 4,000 after its rush-release on iTunes on 24 March 2012.[2] It peaked at number 48.[14]