[3][4] According to Claypool, Tom Waits claimed it's his favourite Primus album because "It sounds like it needs a good wash".

[7] In his review for Allmusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine contends that "the replacement of drummer Tim "Herb" Alexander with Brian [sic] "Brain" Mantia doesn't affect Primus' sound in any notable way", but also notes that the album "moves Primus even further into progressive and jazz-rock territory".

In conclusion, he describes Brown Album as "standard Primus – all instrumental interplay and adolescent humor – but it's delivered with more finesse and skill than ever.

[12] Tom Moon, for Rolling Stone, describes Brown Album as "precisely the type of weirdness that Primus have been peddling for years – progressive-rock instrumentals camouflaged in the tattered rags of punk and the absurdist narratives of a junior Zappa", although he notes that the songs "all wind up sounding the same... Galumphing processionals more notable for their robotic persistence than for their musical invention."

He calls the album "more accessible" in the way that it "moves away from Primus' pet herky-jerky shifts of meter long enough to establish serious, straightforward grooves", but also "more accomplished than inspired" with an "increasingly obvious soul deficit.

reflected on the album on its 25th anniversary in July 2022, describing it as showcasing "a unique form of psycho jazz, bass-oriented metal, and alt-rock psychedelia.