RCA Victor released "Philosophy of the World" (with the original track sequence) on CD in 1999. (The reissue was co-produced by Terry Adams and Irwin Chusid; the latter also wrote new liner notes.) The "Wall Street Journal" reviewed the CD on the day it was released. "The New Yorker" subsequently ran a lengthy profile of the Shaggs by staff writer Susan Orlean, who repeats the common falsehood that Frank Zappa called the Shaggs "better than the Beatles". (The quote originated in the headline of a Lester Bangs review of "Philosophy of the World", which ran in "The Village Voice", January 28, 1981. The full headline was "The Shaggs: Better Than the Beatles (and DNA, Too).") Orlean alludes to an online review by a writer who describes the album as "hauntingly bad".