Hanna Lynn of "NME" was more critical, feeling that ""Upstairs at Eric's" is an LP of trial and some error, and it shows all the signs of a collaboration that's still in a promising infancy. The writing is divided almost equally between the two, and at their best each acts as an excellent foil to the other... A little too often, though, this LP speaks of two disparate pasts rather than one new Yazoo facing the future." Ken Tucker of "The Philadelphia Inquirer" gave the album a one star out of five rating, referred to Yaz as "stiffed-voiced monotony fans" and that the group were "even more pretentious than most, working the Lord's Prayer into its tedious synthesizer rhythms."