Robert Christgau gave the album a favorable review, calling it "fuller and jazzier than Blank Generation without any loss of concision".

He praised the original songs, especially "Time," as "rock poetry at its best - insightful, felicitously phrased, and to the point," and described Hell as a contemporary equivalent to Bob Dylan who was also capable of writing rock poetry as "compact and crystal-clear as the songs of Mr. Dylan's early idols, Smokey Robinson and Chuck Berry.

"[8] Years later, when it was still legally owned by Marty Thau and his label Red Star, Hell tried to remix Destiny Street from the original 24-track session tapes, but he was told that they had been lost.

After Hell acquired the rights to Destiny Street in 2005, he eventually decided to delete the album and replace it with a new and clearer version that mixed the rhythm tracks from the cassette tapes with newly recorded vocals and guitar solos.

The final result was released in 2009 as Destiny Street Repaired, and it was available only through its online label Insound and Hell's own website.