Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice, gave Love Songs an "A" and said that "Miles's quiet cool and taciturn affection for the limits of the melody at hand" summons a "consensual intimacy" that "definitely won't kill the mood." Matt Robinson of All About Jazz felt that it explores Davis' "trademark poise and lyricism" that was best expressed in ballads and credited the compilation for "revealing a diversity even in the broad unity of the love song." Q magazine gave it four out of five stars and stated, "The master of the art, Davis could push an entire universe of fragility into a simple love song and play the trumpet with such disarming candour it hurt". In a mixed review for Allmusic, Scott Yanow gave the album two-and-a-half stars and said that, because of "the slow tempos and the lack of variety in moods, this set is really designed more for background music than for close listening." In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), J. D. Considine gave Love Songs three-and-a-half out of five stars and found it "quite sweet" for a "theme-oriented collection". User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.