[9] In The New York Times, James Bernard wrote that the "frenzied hybrid" of musical styles on Check Your Head "is tough to follow but well worth the effort", concluding that the album "demonstrates that the Beastie Boys will risk commercial failure to do what they please.

[20] Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot awarded it three out of four stars and credited the Beastie Boys for "showing surprising resiliency and versatility",[21] while Steven Blush of Spin praised the album's "thick, deep, textured, and varied" songs and emphasis on groove.

[22] Writing for Rolling Stone, Kevin Powell deemed it the group's "most unconventional outing to date" and found its eclecticism "confusing at times" but distinctive, giving the album three-and-a-half stars out of five.

[25] Stephen Dalton was less impressed in NME, rating Check Your Head six out of ten and finding that the Beastie Boys had regressed as lyricists, "mimicking the music's laid back laziness and trading much of their trademark humour for seemingly improvised shouting matches.

[29] In a retrospective review, AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that on Check Your Head, the Beastie Boys "repositioned themselves as a lo-fi, alt-rock groove band" who "had not abandoned rap, but it was no longer the foundation of their music, it was simply the most prominent in a thick pop-culture gumbo".

Club's Nathan Rabin called it "a dorm-room staple and cultural touchstone" that "was just as radical a reinvention" as Paul's Boutique and marked the group's "strangely organic evolution into adventurous sonic astronauts".