The music video for the song was made to look like a film with lead singer Tony Hadley as the main character and received airplay on the U.S. cable channel MTV.

Spandau Ballet chose Buggles founder Trevor Horn to remix the song "Instinction" from their 1982 album Diamond to release as a single, and, in doing so, the band began a shift from dance music to more of a pop sound.

[6] Chrysalis executives were impressed with the LP, especially the tracks titled "Gold" and "True",[7] but as Kemp explained in his autobiography I Know This Much: From Soho to Spandau, the band's manager insisted that a different song should be the "Lifeline" follow-up.

[9] Fred Dellar of Smash Hits was more ambivalent, writing that the band members "'woo-woo' and 'hee-up-up' in best vocal back-up mode, the rhythm trundling on amid organ stabs.

"[12] When the song was released on the album True, Ira Robbins of Trouser Press noted that the LP's "two impressive numbers, 'Communication' and 'Lifeline', both match stylish presentation with solid songwriting and a modicum of soulful crooning.

"[10] The editors of Record Business credited Jolley and Swain for the band having "cut out the self-indulgent frills which threatened to submerge them" and thought "Communication" was "a fair example of the new Ballet style, a very direct and simple song executed with no little flair.

The man requesting the work was played by former professional boxer John Conteh, who admitted to watching The Long Good Friday four times in preparation for the role.