[5] Upon its release, the compilation received positive reviews from music critics and placed in several international charts, including Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, South Korea and Japan.

In an article published in The Guardian in May 2008, Sean O'Hagan, a close friend of My Bloody Valentine's vocalist and guitarist Kevin Shields, commented on the rumours, saying: "a representative from Sony (who now possess the band's back catalogue) emailed to ask if I would write the sleevenotes for a very imminent My Bloody Valentine box set featuring Shields's remastered versions of Isn't Anything and Loveless, as well as all the songs that appeared on their now hard-to-find EPs and several unreleased tracks.

"[21] Writing for The Irish Times, Tony Clayton-Lea said the release, along with Isn't Anything and Loveless, "highlight once again how traditional musical structures can be subverted and inverted to the point where it's simultaneously familiar and comforting, yet odd and uneasy," awarding it four out of five stars.

[22] Mic Wright of musicOMH noted that "for anyone who has been mesmerised by the power, beauty and oddness of MBV, it's yet another opportunity to get obsessed," describing the album as "the sound of sweet sedation, like being serenaded by angels as you come out from under a general anaesthetic.

Richardson selected the "crunchy pop tunes at the tail end of the disc" as the highlights of the album, noting that the songs "complement to the superior material on the EPs.