MTV Europe ranked "Sailing on the Seven Seas" the 21st greatest song of 1991. In a retrospective review, AllMusic critic Dave Thompson wrote that OMD "sail giddily through the musical past", delivering "a glorious musical mélange, an inspired melding of synth pop soar, 2-Tone yore, and glam rock roar, the anthemic chorus to the fore with a fist-in-the-air punch that shouts out for more". Colleague Ned Raggett called it the "one definite redeeming number" from parent album "Sugar Tax", observing "glam-styled beats underpinning a giddy, playful romp that showed McCluskey still hadn't lost his touch entirely".