According to biographer Chris Twomey, detractors of the record thought that its "complex musical nuts and bolts too arty or too clever for their own good." Michael Kremen of "The Michigan Daily" reviewed that the songs "no longer sound fresh. I hear too many bits and pieces from their previous records as well as a lots of White Album and Abbey Road-era Beatles stuff. Perhaps, having influenced lots of bands over the last three years, that which once seemed unique in XTC is now fairly common."