The album came at the tail-end of the group's commercial success with their Top 40 debut, Ultimate Spinach, a direct product of the marketing campaign known as the Bosstown Sound.

However, the Sound's advertising had begun to have an adverse effect on the Boston bands that spearheaded the movement, leading to Ultimate Spinach's popularity to go on the decline by the time the group initiated recording sessions.

[4] Reception on the album is generally mixed, with Richie Unterberger, writing for AllMusic, being critical on Bruce-Douglas's lyrics, saying they "are unintentional hippie parodies without any irony or humor, whether solemnly aspiring to a beatnik state or indicting the straight world".

[6] In a positive review, Gary Burns contemplates that Behold & See deserved better reception from critics at the time of its release, and was disappointed by the alterations made on the album's reissue.

It is 10 minutes shorter than the LP version, with the song "Visions of Your Reality" removed, the track listing altered, and "Fragmentary March of Green", "Jazz Thing", and "Mind Flowers" also being edited.