American critic Robert Christgau gave the album a "neither" rating, indicating an album that "may impress once or twice with consistent craft or an arresting track or two. Then it won't". A negative review came from "Rolling Stone", who gave the album two stars out of five, labelling the album "utterly disappointing" and blaming producer Nellee Hooper, suggesting he "sabotaged a ferociously iconoclastic talent with a phalanx of cheap electronic gimmickry." Michele Romero of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the album a C, saying, "On a few songs, breathy mewl is a pleasant contrast to the mechanical drone of Sugarcube-like techno-tunes. But most of "Debut" sounds annoyingly like the monotonous plinking of a deranged music box. Wind it up if you like -- eventually it will stop." "Debut" rated highly in British end of year polls. The "NME" ranked "Debut" at number one on their list of "Top 50 LPs of 1993". "Melody Maker" placed the album at number six on their list of "Albums of the Year for 1993" calling it "a fantastic debut". In 1994, "Q" included the album on their list for top fifty albums of 1993. In 2000 it was voted number 77 in Colin Larkin's "All Time Top 1000 Albums". Björk reacted to the positive reviews hesitantly, stating that if she'd "delivered exactly the same album and I came from Nottingham, I'd have got completely different reviews, normal down-to-earth ones" and that "Debut" "was a bit of a rehearsal and it's really not that good. I can do much better."