"Graffiti Bridge" received positive reviews from contemporary critics, who praised Prince's songwriting and the variety of the music while deeming it an improvement over 1988's "Lovesexy". "Time" magazine hailed the record as a "groovable feast", while "Q" claimed it was "practically impossible to choose anything that doesn't deserve to be there. How long is it since that can honestly be said about a Prince album?" In "Entertainment Weekly", Greg Sandow said the album was likely a "masterpiece" that found Prince rediscovering his ability to cover different styles effortlessly. "Rolling Stone" reviewer Paul Evans credited him for lending a "sharper focus", "harder groove", and emphasis on funk and rock rather than "the feckless genre dabbling" of albums such as "Lovesexy" and "Around the World in a Day" (1985). Evans also believed Prince's catchy compositions helped make the "omnivorous mysticism" of his lyrics "newly convincing — convincing, but still startling, sensual and freeing". Greg Kot, the "Chicago Tribune"s chief music critic, called the album "a sprawling, wildly diffuse statement on love, sin, sex and salvation that ranks with his best work", as well as "perhaps his most complex and, dare we say, mature exploration" of those themes.