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
This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get songs by John Lydon, Keith Levene, and Martin Atkins except * by John Lydon and Martin Atkins Five songs on "This Is What You Want...This Is What You Get" are re-recordings of tracks which originally appeared on "Commercial Zone": "Bad Life" (originally titled "Mad Max"), "This Is Not a Love Song" (originally titled "Love Song"), "Solitaire" (entitled "Young Brits" on the second pressing of "Commercial Zone"), "The Order of Death" (originally titled "The Slab"), and "Where Are You?" (originally titled "Lou Reed Part 2"). Four songs from "Commercial Zone", "Bad Night", "Lou Reed Part 1", "Blue Water" and "Miller Hi-Life",