Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| The Age | |
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation | (positive) |
| Allmusic | |
| BBC | |
| musicOMH | |
Tea & Sympathy was awarded "Best Cover Art" and "Album of the Year" at the 2006 ARIA Music Awards; it was also nominated for "Best Blues & Roots Album" and "Highest Selling Album". "Wish You Well" won "Best Video", while "Watch Over Me" was nominated for "Single of the Year". "Wish You Well" topped the Triple J Hottest 100, 2005, and was the most broadcast song on Australian radio in 2006. Fanning won "Best Male Artist" for his work on the album, and as part of his acceptance speech challenged fellow Australian musicians to write protest songs—something they had been criticised for a lack of by ARIA Hall of Fame inductee Rob Hirst. Tea & Sympathy was nominated for the inaugural J Award in 2005, and Fanning won "Songwriter of the Year" at the 2006 APRA Awards. MTV Australia named Tea & Sympathy "Album of the Year" at its 2006 Video Music Awards.
Tea & Sympathy's critical reception was moderate. It was generally seen as being less entertaining than Fanning's Powderfinger work—The Age said Powderfinger were a "rock band ingrained in the national psyche" like Cold Chisel, but that Tea & Sympathy showed little resemblance to Cold Chisel frontman Jimmy Barnes's groundbreaking debut album, Bodyswerve. Barnaby Smith of musicOMH said the album was not "a work to suggest solo career might better Powderfinger". The BBC's Jenna Bachelor wrote that the album is "pleasant enough without pulling up any trees".
Despite Fanning's claims he could not write a country song, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and BBC drew comparisons to Neil Young and supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The ABC said Tea & Sympathy resembled the band's work, "though without the hippy, drippy lyrics", while the BBC observed a "harmony porch style sound" highly similar to that of Young. Allmusic wrote that "Fanning's influences are strictly old school", noting Manassas' self-titled album and Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection as similar.
Fanning's vocals drew praise; Allmusic's Andy Whitman said he was a "fine, soulful singer" whose "vocal presence alone merits attention". Other aspects of the album, though, were seen in a more negative light. musicOMH said songs like "Wash Me Clean" "simply lack a strong enough melody", while the BBC wrote that Fanning "might have to be happy with 'straight in at 101,' in the UK" despite topping the ARIA Albums Chart. The Age concluded its review by calling Tea & Sympathy "a low-key but worthy personal offering".
In October 2010, Tea & Sympathy (2005) was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.
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