Among the contemporary reviews of the album, "Beat Instrumental" described "It's All Too Much" and "Only a Northern Song" as "superb pieces" that "redeem" side one. "Record Mirror"s reviewer said that it was the best-sounding track on "Yellow Submarine", adding: "Beside the beauty of the organ, the absolute volume of it – even when the player is turned down – is amazing. The song is basically of rock construction, but built around one endless note which trails behind." In his lengthy assessment of the track, Barry Miles of "International Times" wrote: "Endless, mantric, a round, interwoven, trellised, tessellated, filigreed, gidouiled, spiralling is It's All Too Much [–] George's Indian-timed, with drums fading-in-and-out, spurts of life to a decaying note, multi-level, handclapping number ... High treble notes flicker like moths around the top register. Happy singalong music." In his 1998 book "The Beatles Diary", Miles praised it further as "the most striking piece of psychedelia The Beatles ever recorded" and concluded: "Discordant, off-beat and effortlessly brilliant, the song was (alongside 'Taxman') Harrison's finest piece of Western rock music to date."