Seth Mnookin from CMJ New Music Report wrote that "Cul De Sac is exciting, adventurous and vital, as it proves once again on the excellent Crashes To Light. Once again, Glenn Jones is a constant marvel, one minute threading his pointillist lead lines through a series of melodic shifts and the next searing the listener with an eruption of squalls reminiscent of Ennio Morricone's spaghetti Westerns [...] Crashes To Light also features the rest of Cul De Sac in rare form".[5]
Mark Richardson from Pitchfork wrote "What makes Crashes stand out among the boring noodlers that have sprung from the indie rock woodwork? It's the fact that the sounds they make conjure such clear pictures—the sound of the cinema [...] Of course, it wouldn't be an instrumental rock album without a couple of flat-out snoozers, and the record has exactly two—not exactly a bad ratio in this genre [...] This is music that grows on you, a keeper."[3]