Discussing the album's reception in his 1977 book "The Beatles Forever", Nicholas Schaffner wrote: "Harrison's worldly critics, who had long found his sermons insufferable, responded like bulls to a red flag to "Extra Texture", which contains a number of treatises on how reviewers always 'miss the point.'" Even Harrison's loyal "disciples", Schaffner continued, tended to view the album as "plodding and aimless". "Rolling Stone"s reviewer, Dave Marsh, highlighted "You" as a return to "All Things Must Pass"-style grandeur, and "Can't Stop Thinking About You" and "Tired of Midnight Blue" as "the most effective nine minutes of music" the artist had made since 1970. Generally, on an album that was "sketchy at best", however, Marsh bemoaned the over-reliance on "merely competent" keyboards and Harrison's "affectingly feeble voice", before concluding: "Harrison is no longer a Beatle, as he has reminded us more than we have asked. But if he learned nothing else from his experience in that organization, it ought to have been that a good guitar player isn't worth much without a band."