Still mad about the boy, but ["This Time"] is pedestrian compared to "Honky Tonk Heroes."… It works if you think of it as a relaxed mood piece, but Jennings might have to make up his mind to go much further along the way with rock, and that's dicing with commercial death as far as his C and W fans will be concerned. Not this time; maybe next.

Michael Watts, "Albums: 'This Time'," in Melody Maker (© IPC Business Press Ltd.), June 8, 1974, p. 43.