"Stutter" was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. "NME" Dave Haslam wrote that it was a "cleanly delivered debut LP, gleaming with creativity and confidence." He noted "such a tremendous livewire energy in the music that once again I'm left to rationalise a love with is instinctive, no less." Duncan Wright of "Smash Hits" said every track was a "polished nugget of fantasy and imagination full of mind-boggling details." "Melody Maker" writer Jim Shelley said the album was "a safe, sensible James record." He complimented Kaye's "tidy production" for giving clarity to Booth's "eccentric existentialism." Music critic Robert Christgau saw the album as a "place pleasant, unkempt, and all their own, but not private enough to suit them--hence their wry, well-meaning, angst-ridden, and ultimately impenetrable lyrics."