Channel Pressure garnered favorable reviews from professional music journalists upon its release, and was number 18 on a year-end list of the best albums of 2011 by Gorilla vs. Bear.

"[7] The style of Channel Pressure was described by Beats per Minute as a mixture of "80s throwback electropop, happy hooks, new-aged tinged video game overworld themes, Rhythm Nation-era industrial R&B, and a liberally applied layer of synthy cheese"[8] and by Spin magazine as pastiche in the vein of Ariel Pink.

AllMusic described the album as "blurring the boundaries between brittle digi-funk, gooey, soft-focus R & B, wonky fusion jazz, noodly electro-prog, and chintzy new age.

"[10] The hectic sound editing is most prevalent in the instrumental facet of the album,[10] where, as Conrad Tao of Sputnikmusic explained, "layers build upon one another and drop out without warning, beats appear out of nowhere, and flangers are employed liberally.

"[11] PopMatters critic Richard Elliott noted a "stutter of the past" in the album's drum parts which was a symbol of the "general battle between analog and digital, “real” and synthesized, that occupied so much of that era’s aesthetics.

He explained that the frequent number of references to television in the lyrics "locate the album somewhere between the technology of the past and that of the future, between 1984 and the virtualized separation of image from machine.

[13] Heems from the alternative hip hop group Das Racist recorded a full verse for the album, but only a part of it was used and was featured near the end of "Scumsoft".

[13] Channel Pressure's title track, described by Lopatin as "one of the more developed Jupiter 8 MIDI jams", introduces the supercomputer System II that brainwashes Rogers throughout the album.

[16] It's a joyous track that Pitchfork's Zach Kelly compared to "forgotten B-movie soundtracks from the decade of excess"[17] and Ken Taylor of XLR8R the works of Oingo Boingo.

[13] The song features a Minimoog the duo bought from the door next to where they were recording Channel Pressure, as well as another guitar part from Gitelman where he is "shredding seventh-grade style.

[13] The making of "New Planet" is the best example of this process;[13] Ford and Lopatin built the track around fretless bass guitar lead melodies and synth pads, and Prefuse 73, in the duo's words, "took this one above the clouds.

[13] It is followed by the theme song for and named after Joey Rogers, which is about needing System II to produce the record he wants make that, in Ford's words, "dominates his dreams.

"[10] "Break Inside", labeled "the Babyface jam" during development, features Autre Ne Veut and Gitelman singing the same lead vocal melody in different styles, while Ford acts as "weird computer glue holding them together," Lopatin said.

[13] Categorized as a "lover's Casio reggae" song by Lopatin, "I Surrender" is another track on Channel Pressure featuring vocals from Autre Ne Veut.

[13] Musically influenced from Yello's song "Oh Yeah" that Ford and Lopatin heard on a Twix television advertisement, "World of Regret" is the part of the album's story where Rogers' "hedonistic last supper" takes place, with a choir of "dads" attending it.

"[12] He analyzed that the LP was "far from being subject to a nostalgia for inauthenticity, or a desire for style over content," and the duo "get involved in the labor of memory work, piecing together textures and re-composing slabs of sound in ways that challenge and change their original logic.

[15] Savage described Channel Pressure as a "creation that is equal parts experimentation and familiarity, cheese sincerity, teen affect, cultural diagnostics, and a liberal streak of naïve charm.

"[1] He highlighted how the melodies "won’t impress themselves instantly upon the consciousness but rather work their way into it," which was clever given the album's concept about computers manipulating the behavior of a human.

"[24] Becker called it "an undeniably fun ride through EPCOT-themed dreams and technological mysticism," describing it as like "candy; it’s not great for you, but it tastes delicious and goes down easy.