Despite the album's major commercial success, it received mixed reviews from music critics, with opinions varying on the artistic content. One reviewer called it "Bowie at his best". In a piece on Bowie for "Time" in July 1983, Jay Cocks described the album as "unabashedly commercial, melodically alliterative and lyrically smart at the same time". Robert Christgau felt that it had a "perfunctory professional surface", and that other than "Modern Love", which was "interesting", the album was "pleasantly pointless". Ken Tucker, in a review for "Rolling Stone", felt the album sounded great, with an intelligent simplicity and a "surface beauty", but that the album as a whole was "thin and niggling", other than "Modern Love," "Without You" and "Shake It", which offered "some of the most daring songwriting of Bowie's career". Writing for "Record" magazine, Carol Cooper called the album "the "Young Americans" of the '80s". Although she praised the numerous styles present, she felt all the tracks were "rather modest". However, she commended Rodgers' involvement, writing that his presence allows Bowie to shine through. More positively, "NME"s Charles Shaar Murray gave unanimous praise to the album, calling it "some of the strongest, simplest and least complicated music that Bowie has ever made." Further describing it as "warm, strong, inspiring and useful," he complimented Vaughan's contributions, writing that he gives the songs a more "traditional" feel. "Billboard" further praised the album, describing it "Bowie's most accessible music in years", while "Commonweal" called it "some of the most exciting R&B-based dance music in years."