Even after the mid-2006 double-disc deluxe reissue of Sublime, the band's eponymous album originally released in 1996, a wealth of unreleased material remained.

[3] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that Everything Under the Sun contains "a few mild revelations -- on the earliest recordings, their debt to '80s ska revival bands like the English Beat is clearer than ever, for instance -- but the primary purpose of this is as a clearing-house for rarities that have been circulating on bootleg networks".

He added that the box set "not only does its job quite well, but it also does make a case that as a live outfit, Sublime had a muscular musicality and surprisingly fluidity that never quite translated in the studio as well as it did on the stage.

[2] Jeff Vrabel of Billboard remarked that the collection's songs "range from the interestingly raw to the unlistenable, especially when the band trades its slow-rolling, dub-style vibe for stabs at lo-fi punk.

"[4] An article in the December 2006 issue of Spin said the box set is "as close as Bradley Nowell cultists will ever get to a new Sublime release.