[7] "Ticking" tells the story of a man suffering from a repressed childhood who kills 14 people in a mass shooting in a bar in New York City.

The 1995 CD reissue contains four songs from the general period in and around the release of Caribou, though only two of them, the B-sides "Sick City" and "Cold Highway", were recorded during the album sessions.

[11] Tom Nolan of Rolling Stone described the album as "dispiriting" and said, "Nearly every song on Caribou suffers from a blithe lack of focus, an almost arrogant disregard of the need to establish context or purpose ...

Shifting from sentimental to heavy to mocking, [John and Bernie Taupin] not only fail to touch all bases but undercut what credence they might possibly have achieved."

[8] Stephen Thomas Erlewine's retrospective review for AllMusic called Caribou "a disappointment" and that aside from the two singles, "the album tracks tend to be ridiculous filler on the order of 'Solar Prestige a Gammon' or competent genre exercises like 'You're So Static'".