Reviews were mixed, with Jon Landau calling "It's Only Rock 'n Roll" "one of the most intriguing and mysterious, as well as the darkest, of all Rolling Stones records." NME voted the album as the second best album of the year. However rock critic Lester Bangs disparaged the album in "The Village Voice", much like "Goats Head Soup", saying, "The Stones have become oblique in their old age, which is just another word for perverse except that perverse is the corniest concept extant as they realized at inception... "Soup" was friendly and safe. I want the edge and this album doesn't reassure me that I'll get it, what a curious situation to be stuck in, but maybe that's the beauty of the Stones, hah, hah, kid? This album is false. Numb. But it cuts like a dull blade. Are they doing the cutting, or are we?"