The AllMusic review by Sean Westergaard commented: "Gold Sounds is an overwhelming success, not just as a tribute but as a jazz album ... If you're a Pavement fan, you owe it to yourself to check out what these guys do with the songbook. If you're a jazz fan, forget that these tunes come from the world of indie rock; in the hands of Carter and Chestnut, they might as well be undiscovered standards".[2] On All About Jazz, Michael McCaw observed: "Gold Sounds doesn't give you everything the first time around. Like Pavement's recordings, what may seem complete is only a portion of the melody and musical ideas to which you ultimately want to return, because each time they hook you in a different way. In the end, the album provides a meaty dose of jazz that is as infectious as the pop from which it is derived".[3] In JazzTimes, Brent Burton was less enthusiastic, writing: "a big hunk of the covers disc is, simply put, rather anonymous sounding, which leaves listeners with the quartet's somewhat cheesy conception of what it means to—gulp—rock".[5]
