Writing for "Rolling Stone" in 2002, Greg Kot admired the song, saying: "once again, a raga-flavored groove brings out Harrison's best in the walloping 'It's All Too Much.'" That same year, Nigel Williamson of "Uncut" described it as "a psychedelic classic" that, had it been recorded earlier in 1967, "would have made "Sgt Pepper" an even better album". In the 2004 edition of "The Rolling Stone Album Guide", Rob Sheffield wrote: ""Yellow Submarine" was a flat soundtrack rather than a real album, but here's a question: Why is George's 'It's All Too Much' not heralded as one of the top five all-time psychedelic freakouts in rock history?" Sheffield features the track in his 2017 book "Dreaming the Beatles", where he refers to it as "the great lost Beatle song – the one that deserves to be infinitely more famous than it is", adding: "It's where they really nailed the "Sgt. Pepper" sound – that combination of acid-rock momentum and brass-band frippery. 'It's All Too Much' would have been the second or third best song on "Sgt. Pepper" ..." Richie Unterberger of AllMusic similarly considers "Yellow Submarine" to be "inessential" and describes the track as "the jewel of the new songs ... resplendent in swirling , larger-than-life percussion, and tidal waves of feedback guitar" and "a virtuoso excursion into otherwise hazy psychedelia".