The single received largely positive response upon release. "NME" and "Melody Maker" awarded it Single of the Week. The former wrote: "Luxuriating in the ambitious, dramatic, exhausting spell of this makes everything else sound like so much ephemera. Like most great things it leaves you utterly silent." The latter's Caitlin Moran called it "wild and elegant, soft then strong, and very, very long... It has the scope of 'High Rising' with the pop attack of 'So Young'." Tom Doyle awarded the song "Best New Single" in the February 16 issue of "Smash Hits", calling it "a rock ballad of epic proportions concerning itself with the wonders of love in the grim modern world of skyscrapers and motorway paths." He called it their "best single yet" and predicted it would be the band's first no. 1 single. Writing for "The Guardian", Caroline Sullivan spoke favourably of Suede's new musical direction, saying that "Suede prematurely reach the eight-minute song stage of their career. But what could have been a pretentious misjudgement turns out to be one of their brightest moves."