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? the list of celebrated contributors, Lomax's "stylish compositions and superb voice were equal to such esteemed company". In his preview of the label's 2010 reissues, for "Rolling Stone", David Fricke listed it third among his top five non-Beatle Apple albums, writing: "["Is This What You Want?"] often sounds like a student edition of Delaney and Bonnie's gospel-spiced R&B with some odd jarring touches … But 'Sour Milk Sea' is dynamite, the title track bears a neat eerie resemblance to 'I Am the Walrus' in the opening measures, and Lomax is a formidable voice, in the gruff, chesty British tradition of