Despite the general consensus on the album, "Stylus Magazine" reviewed the album in 2005 as part of its "On Second Thought" section and concluded that "Tonight", although not a great album, is still a good one: "it’s a much better album than you think it is, or may have been led to believe. Bowie’s made some subpar records, but this isn't one of them—and frankly, even its failures aren't boring, because, well, it’s an '80s Bowie album, from a decade in which he was wildly inconsistent, but also never dull." In 2016, Yo Zushi of the "New Statesman" also defended the album, writing "no album that begins with the seven-minute masterpiece 'Loving the Alien' and contains the rocking 'Blue Jean' should have received the drubbing it got". He also argued "the TV-special-style cover of the Beach Boys' 'God Only Knows' is as stirring, in its cold, almost Brechtian way, as "Station to Station"'s 'Wild Is the Wind' – it's like watching Elvis in through a sheet of ice." Reviewing the album's remaster as part of the "Loving the Alien (1983–1988)" box set, Chris Ingalls of "PopMatters" felt that the record as a whole was a "mixed bag", but its "good moments", citing "Loving the Alien" and "Blue Jean", are "very good indeed."