It was the final album Harry made whilst signed to the Chrysalis label, thus ending a successful partnership that began with her time as a member of Blondie and had endured for over 15 years.

[9] The second single, ballad "Strike Me Pink", had a controversial promotional video that was banned[citation needed] for being too disturbing – it featured a man in a glass tank filled with water, as Harry sits and watches him drown.

In the UK, Chris Roberts of Melody Maker considered Debravation to be a "sensible attempt to consolidate fields ploughed" by Harry's previous album Def, Dumb & Blonde (1989), but also noted the lack of cohesion, calling it "something of a Jill of all trades – rock, pop, dance, rap etc".

He noted that the "sweet pop-rap confection" "Stability" recalls Blondie's "Rapture", but added that the song, along with "a handful of New Wave guitar gushers" are "all stamped with a desperate longing for past glory", and that "even potentially oddball experiments like the William Gibson collaboration ["Dog Star Girl"] sound graceless and mechanical".

On the live version of "Black Dog", the musicians were Steve Barnacle (bass); Carrie Boothe (keyboards); Geoff Dugmore (drums); Karl Hyde (guitar); and Melissa Poole-Stein (backing vocals).