Is This What You Want? superstar backing musicians, saying, "they're always talkin' about who's on the album and not the album itself." Writing in "ZigZag" in July 1974, Andy Childs advised the magazine's readers: "it's worth its weight in gold, so if it's absent from your collection, add it to your shopping list of second-hand records." Greenfield and Childs both recognised Harrison's "Sour Milk Sea" as a highlight of the album. Richie Unterberger of AllMusic offers a less favourable opinion of "Is This What You Want?", describing Lomax as "a passable but unarresting singer and songwriter". Unterberger identifies the best moments as the "Beatlesque" songs
Is This What You Want? Come Back". The 2010 remaster offered previously unreleased songs recorded during Lomax's two years on Apple Records, as well as additional tracks for download, including alternative mixes of "Sour Milk Sea", "The Eagle Laughs at You" and "New Day". Omitted from this 2010 CD, "Going Back to Liverpool" and the stereo mix of "New Day" instead appeared on the bonus discs included in the 17-disc "Apple Box Set". On release, "Is This What You Want?" received enthusiastic reviews. In a 1970 interview with Robert Greenfield of "Rolling Stone", however, Lomax lamented that commentators tended to focus on the line-up of