Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album three out of five stars, criticizing Urban's attempt to address complicated sexual politics.

It also debuted atop the Top Country Albums chart, becoming Urban's sixth number-one album on that chart. Actually, I’m being unfair; ‘Parallel Line’, a polished and eminently sing-able pop song, co-written by Ed Sheeran, is easily the best of the three, and deserved greater success.When I used to go to Springsteen concerts, I knew every word of every song, but they meant something! Those who work full-time in one of those categories and earn their income mostly from within the country music industry pay an annual membership fee if they wish to be part of the CMA. Nonetheless, Graffiti U sounds like an album made by an energised, invigorated artist, and – although not every song is a complete success – the album’s several highlights find Urban to be firing on all cylinders.

So, by going into this direction…he’ll probably last longer on country radio than most of his peers who have been around a while. Hummm… he just won the CMA (that’s “Country Music” for those of you that don’t know) Entertainer of the Year award last night. The album was heavily influenced by experiences from Urban's youth, and includes the singles " Female", " Parallel Line", " Coming Home" (featuring Julia Michaels), and " Never Comin' Down". I don’t have any of that stuff anywhere because I like it to be as blank a canvas as it was the very first time I made a record.But Urban threw a curveball on Wednesday night, packing the club to capacity to play a free surprise show and unveil plans for his Graffiti U World Tour and forthcoming album, also titled Graffiti U. He’s had a long career and could totally live on his past hits but he’s putting out these godawful songs.

Urban’s previous album, 2016’s Ripcord, featured a headline-making collaboration with Pitbull and Nile Rodgers—a statement about his interest in venturing beyond genre boundaries.But the saddest part of all of this shit is that he and Blake and several others COULD be making the most incredible music of their lives if they weren’t so foc ussed on chasing kids to pad their bank accounts and make them FEEL relevant .