In the "NME", Tony Tyler began his review by stating that he had long idolised Harrison as "the finest packaged object since frozen pizza", but he had changed his opinion dramatically in recent years; after the "dire, ennui-making" "All Things Must Pass", Tyler continued, "the unworthiness of my heretical thoughts smote home around the time of the Bangla Desh concerts." Robert Christgau was also unimpressed in "Creem", giving the record a "C" grade and writing that "Harrison sings as if he's doing sitar impressions". In their 1975 book "", Tyler and co-author Roy Carr bemoaned Harrison's "didactically imposing said Holy Memoirs upon innocent record-collectors" and declared the album's spiritual theme "almost as offensive in its own way" as Lennon and Yoko Ono's political radicalism on "Some Time in New York City" (1972).