At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 73 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews" based on thirteen reviews. The AllMusic review by Ned Raggett awarded the album 3.5 stars stating "If anything, All We Grow further suggests an Upper Midwest of the mind, with the Wisconsin-based Carey creating pieces like "Move" and "In the Dirt" that aren't so much songs as ambient meditation as they are songs as quietly dramatic atmospherics—one almost wants to imagine the album being the sonic setting for a movie or a short story with fresh snow against a slate-gray sky. Meanwhile, the hints of the obsessive minimalism drawing on his educational background can readily be heard in the brisk, immediate piano parts of "We Fell" and "In the Stream," where the rhythms are provided by keys rather than drums (themselves notable for their near complete absence from the album, though the percussive touches on "Action" add much to the song's building conclusion)... It's also nice to hear vocals like Carey's, which gently suggest a Brian Wilson sense of harmonizing instead of fully pushing the point—refreshing given so many of Carey's compatriots in indie-leaning rock music. ".[9]
