[3] The two singles off the album "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go" and "Move On Up" showcased Mayfield's new funk musical style, while the rest of the tracks were much softer soul based songs.

[4] According to Joseph L. Tirabassi of Tiny Mix Tapes, "We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue" exemplified the "gliding soul" and "hard-hitting funk" the rest of the album veered between.

[6] In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, John Wendell was disappointed by Curtis, finding much of Mayfield's music more rhythmic than melodic, "fragmentary, garbled and frustrating to listen to"; he called the lyrics haphazardly written and mealy-mouthed.

'"[15] The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau was also somewhat unmoved by the album's "essentially middle-class guides to black pride" but qualified his judgment as reflecting a certain degree of cultural relativism on his part, making note of African-American audiences having embraced the record.

[11] Bruce Eder from AllMusic said Mayfield had "embraced the most progressive soul sounds of the era" on an album that was "practically the Sgt.

[7] While regarding Mayfield's first four albums as forming a timeless, "politically conscious, progressive-soul tetralogy", PopMatters critic Charles Donovan said Curtis has "eight lengthy, politically conscious, progressive soul songs, some easy to connect with, others more challenging and requiring multiple listens", while noting its frequent presence in critics' best album lists.

[17] In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Geoffrey Himes wrote that the songs remained irresistibly catchy, even though sometimes Mayfield's messages were oversimplified and the production sounded excessively "ornate".