[1] Sonically, the song represented an attempt by Costello to incorporate elements of the "big open-spaced music" from U2 and Echo and the Bunnymen that was popular at the time.

Per Costello, Pete Thomas arrived at the studio straight from a night of carousing, he confounded all of us by turning in the single inventive take of "Beyond Belief" that transformed the song into the opening track of the record.

[4]In his autobiography, Costello noted that this restructuring of the song's structure over an existing backing track was "unprecedented" for him, concluding that the novelty of such a form of construction was a "real liberation".

Stereogum commented, "If there are any Imperial Bedroom songs casual fans know beyond 'Almost Blue,' they're 'Man Out of Time' and 'Beyond Belief,' as both have rightly been included on various career anthologies.

In a 1982 review of Imperial Bedroom, Simon Hills of Record Mirror praised the Costello's "silky yet muscular voice" on the track.

"[6] Washington City Paper stated, "Amid the current controversy over whether a songwriter is worthy of recognition among the pantheon of Serious Literature, 'Beyond Belief' is certainly as good an exemplar for The Pop Song As High Art as any.