At the time of the release of Against the Grain, Phoebe Snow called it her "rockiest" album, "a deliberate turning away from the jazz influences" of her earlier recordings.

[4] Peter Reilly of Stereo Review recognized the album's intent to "mark [Snow's] entrance into Outright Rock-&-Roll", dismissing it as "merely a paraphrase of real rock" and lamenting that "a singer who...has shown a real flair for projecting a lyric with poignancy and feeling has made such an awkward and clumsy turnabout.

"[5] Rising no higher than #100 on the Billboard 200, Against the Grain became Snow's second album to seriously under-perform, ending her association with Columbia Records.

Everybody who played, sang or cleaned up the studio produced that album...Putting [Paul McCartney's "Every Night"]" - which afforded Snow a hit in the UK and Australia - "was the one idea of mine that filtered through.

"[1] Robert Christgau wrote of the album; "this time she dies on the non-originals...Paul McCartney's Every Night' shows up the hooklessness of almost everything else.