"Seventeen Seconds" was included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". The authors note: "Like the album's cover art, which is little more than an abstract blur, the bleak, minimalist sound of "Seventeen Seconds"-era Cure is subtly suggestive." Attention is drawn to the "beguiling bleakness, both in its brief instrumentals and the more pop-oriented tracks (such as the sharp, hook-laden 'Play for Today') that hark back to their earlier work." In 2020, "Rolling Stone" included "Seventeen Seconds" in their "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list, praising the band for its "sleek enveloping studies in foppish, deliciously whined mopery".