"Village Voice" critic Robert Christgau referred to "Metal Machine Music" as Reed's "answer to "Environments"" and said it had "certainly raised consciousness in both the journalistic and business communities" and was not "totally unlistenable", though he admitted for white noise he would rather listen to "Sister Ray". Writing in "MusicHound Rock" (1999), Greg Kot gave the album a "woof!" rating (signifying "dog-food"), and opined: "The spin cycle of a washing machine has more melodic variation than the electronic drone that was "Metal Machine Music"." In 2005, "Q" magazine included the album in a list of "Ten Terrible Records by Great Artists", and it ranked number four in "Q" 50 worst albums of all-time list. It was again featured in "Q" in December 2010, on the magazine's "Top Ten Career Suicides" list, where it came eighth overall. The "Trouser Press Record Guide" referred to it as "four sides of unlistenable oscillator noise", parenthetically calling that assessment "a description, not a value judgment". Mark Deming's review for AllMusic noted that while noise rock groups "have created some sort of context for it", "Metal Machine Music" "hasn't gotten any more user friendly with time", given it "paus only for side breaks with no rhythms, melodies, or formal structures to buffer the onslaught".