All About Jazz's Chris Mosey called In the Key of the Universe "an important, even historic album" for featuring Pharoah Sanders' "return from oblivion", and that without Sanders, "the album would be just one more round of Hammond organ tunes that adhere to DeFrancesco's dictum 'I just like to swing.'"[1]AllMusic's Matt Collar said that "While DeFrancesco has always played with an earthy soulfulness, on In the Key of the Universe he elevates that soulfulness to a divine musical plane."[2]DownBeat's Jim Macnie says "there's an exquisite flow to the entire program."[4]
All tracks are written by Joey DeFrancesco, except for track 6 which was written by Pharoah Sanders and Leon Thomas. All tracks are produced by Joey and Gloria DeFrancesco