Critical reception
Falling Down a Mountain was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 76, based on 21 reviews.
Drowned in Sound felt that Tindersticks have "created a record that certainly rivals, if not betters any of its three predecessors from the past decade". Pitchfork summed up the record by saying "it leaves a very hazy, almost spectral impression when it ends. But it's also warm and in some ways comforting, and it improves the more you listen to it and tease out the details in the songs." BBC Music described the album as "the sound of a band rediscovering themselves" and Uncut had a similar view, saying Tindersticks sounded like "a band with restored self-belief, again loving doing what they do better than anyone else". AllMusic said "Falling Down a Mountain isn't exactly a major reinvention, but it does back up the golden-hued sky gracing its cover with some of their most upbeat and optimistic songs to date". NME was more measured, describing the album as "a dislocated creature" but "the moments of oddness whetted our palette for more." PopMatters was equally unimpressed, calling it "the sound of Tindersticks going through the motions".
In 2011 it was awarded a silver certification from the Independent Music Companies Association which indicated sales of at least 20,000 copies throughout Europe.
