In a retrospective review published on AllMusic, Stanton Swihart wrote: "In the loping, percolating 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World', Tears for Fears perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the mid-'80s while impossibly managing to also create a dreamy, timeless pop classic. "Songs from the Big Chair" is one of the finest statements of the decade." Mark Elliott of "Record Collector" agreed, while adding that it contained the band's "most consistently interesting material". "Q" remarked that the album "zeroed in on every angsty adolescent's desire to feel heroic, with a sound of spotlit, spacious sophistication plus anthemic choruses you'd bet your house on." In "Stylus Magazine", Andrew Unterberger concluded that "even today, when all rock musicians seem to be able to do is be emotional and honest, the brutality and power of "Songs from the Big Chair"s catharsis is still quite shocking." "Songs from the Big Chair" has been included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". "Slant Magazine" listed the album at number 95 on its list of the best albums of the 1980s.