From retrospective reviews, David Jeffries of AllMusic compared the album with Clarke's other debut with Depeche Mode the previous year, stating "While "Speak and Spell" is, by far, the more consistent record, "Upstairs at Eric's" is wholly more satisfying, beating the Depeche record on substance and ambition, and is light years ahead in emotion... The clumsier experimental tracks make most people head for the hits collection, but to do so would be to miss the album's great twist... Like its curious cover, "Upstairs at Eric's" presents a fractured, well-lit, and paranoid urban landscape."