Pitchfork placed Instrumentals at number 17 in its top-50 albums of 2011 list. And because it's designed to back into your space, providing the chance won't feel all that time-consuming, preoccupied as you'll be with something more engrossing while said time passes.' He went on to write that the mixtape basically serves as 'a hugely enticing teaser for what promises to be an illustrious career filled with sumptuous, bittersweet music.' Writing for MSN Music, Robert Christgau said Casino's 'comfortably disquieting' sound 'will grow on you if you give it a chance. makes these beats so emotionally devastating.' Rory Gibb from The Quietus felt that, without the rappers they were originally produced for, the instrumentals are 'revealed as intricate enough to stand alone in their own right', while sounding 'ephemeral and peculiarly of this moment, phantom aggregations of mood and sound that coalesce for brief periods of time before potentially disengaging at some undisclosed point in the future.' Sputnikmusic's Conrad Tao felt that, although Instrumentals sounds occasionally conventional, Casino's approach to sampling is 'refreshingly abstract'. In a review for Resident Advisor, Andrew Ryce called Instrumentals 'a collection of aching, blown-out paeans to wonder, sadness and profound joy-music that any of the above could fall in love with.' Pitchfork critic Brandon Soderberg said Casino's 'attention to hip-hop structure.
