Retrospective reviews have been even more favourable. In a four-and-a-half star out of five review, AllMusic's Jo-Ann Greene called it "one of the most exciting albums" released in the 1980s, commenting how "in a mere ten songs and 35 minutes the Fine Young Cannibals created a masterpiece." Greene said how each of the album's tracks "simmers with creativity, as the hooks, sharp melodies, and irrepressible beats are caressed by nuanced arrangements and sparkling production. Never has music's past, present, and future been more exceptionally combined." In the "Encyclopedia of Popular Music", writer Colin Larkin wrote that it contained "cultivated soul ballads to complement further material of a politically direct nature."