"Boom Crash Opera" reached No. 19 on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart, and was certified as a gold album. Stuart Coupe of "The Sydney Morning Herald" reported there were "impressive notices" for the album and that the group had "been tipped for mega-stardom". Follow-up singles were "City Flat" (June 1987), "Her Charity" (September) and "Love Me to Death" (March 1988), which were "minor hits". Coupe felt that "City Flat" was "of the more outstanding tracks" and it "appears to paint a fairly bleak picture of [their home town". AllMusic's Kevin Hayes compared their sound to Tears for Fears, Icehouse and INXS. He felt it was an "impressive debut. Pete Maslen's drumming keeps pulse. A pensive guitar leads into the most brilliant of bridges and a lilting melody underpinned by Richard Pleasance's strong bassline". However "Hands up in the Air" was "musically strong but weak in its lyrics ... It's a wonder it made the album, let alone became a single ... has a teeny naïveté".