The "Sunday Mirror" wrote positively of the song and called it "hard rockin'". Ben Myers from the now-defunct music magazine "Melody Maker" named the song the "Single of the Week" and called it "fantastic". He noted that "they've damn near written a perfect pop song. The first best single of the year". Jerry Rubino, host of the popular radio show "Left of Center", named the song one of his favorite "Brit Things". Sarah Zupko from "PopMatters" noted that the song was built around "somewhat silly "X-Files" references", but that it possessed "hooks to die for". Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic gave the song a relatively positive review and singled it out as an "AllMusic Pick". He also praised the song's "terrific but was slightly critical of the "self-conscious pop culture references". Despite this, he noted the band was successfully able to "bring memorable melodies to the [song". A subsequent review by AllMusic awarded the single, by itself, two-and-a-half stars out of five. "NME" called the song "little more than fodder for nostalgia TV", written by a "lazy television researcher's imagination".