"[3] Drowned in Sound compared "Boy from School" to "Over and Over" and said the song had retained the "incessant, thumping kick drum and the choral harmonies" but had incorporated differences.

[8] Drowned in Sound also said the "synths drop out to leave behind the introspective sighs of 'We try but we don't belong' [adding] a human touch to a genre led by the robotic likes of Daft Punk", a quality that might "prove to be Hot Chip's trump card."

Virgin Media described the song as a "bittersweet electro gem" with "achingly gorgeous vocal harmonies that run throughout, occasionally blossoming into a reverb-treated chorus that feels like sinking back onto a bed of marshmallow".

[6][10] NME said the song "fuses the thudding robots-take-Ibiza beat of Stardust's "Music Sounds Better with You" to the melancholy synth swoon of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol.

2, whilst MusicOMH said the song "fuses a similar folk lullaby approach to the disco drive of Spiller's "Groovejet" ".