BBC reviewer Chris White called it "brimful with ideas" and stated that McGuinness's voice on the record "soars euphorically and coos playfully with equal aplomb".

Following the good response of Learnings, he went on to release his eponymous debut album, Eugene McGuinness, on the Domino label on 13 October 2008.

Drowned in Sound labelled it "a bold and confident piece of brilliance, equally off kilter as it is tenderly raw".

[6] The BBC said that the album "runs the formative gamut of angsty, carefree, happy-sad, hormone-fuelled, late-teens emotions with a solipsistic disregard for any feelings but his own".

Alongside playing as a session and tour member for Miles Kane, McGuinness finished the recording of his third album in London.