"Though [producer Dan] Auerbach has cleaned up the audio, these tracks are still thrillingly spare, just House's voice and guitar as he makes his way through eight classic songs, often in versions considerably longer than would have fit on a 78 in 1931. Much of the time, he sounds as if he's barely aware that anyone is listening; the tapes lack a sense of theatricality, as if House simply strolled into the room, saw a guitar, and decided to play a few tunes. The intimacy of the recordings is electrifying, and if his vocals lack a bit of the power he summoned as a younger man, his phrasing and sense of storytelling is all there, and audible without the noise common to the few surviving copies of his Paramount recordings ... The unforced naturalism (...) demonstrates why Son House had one of the strongest post-rediscovery bodies of work during the era of the blues revival. This is the kind of music only a tiny handful of people are ever fortunate enough to witness, and Forever on My Mind allows us to share that rare privilege".