Norwegian singer-songwriter Jenny Hval said in 2011 that "Laughing Stock" "is an incredibly intuitive and bare recording – some songs feel like vapour trails. To me, every sound on the album is about death, like the songs are about to die, like a band of Beckett characters. But at the same time the album is so emotional. 'After The Flood' is like crying. After July 22 day of the 2011 Norway attacks, "Laughing Stock" was one of two records I wanted to listen to." Scottish singer King Creosote said "I think of the final two albums by Talk Talk as siblings very close in age. If "Spirit of Eden" is the older, pretty and sophisticated big sister who got all the A grades, then "Laughing Stock" is the wayward, grubby wee brother who got kicked out of school for skiving." Tom Fleming of Wild Beasts, whose bands have been often compared to Talk Talk, praised the album and commented that it is a "kind of a dead end. It's like minimal techno. It's like, how much more minimal can you be?"