[1] Free Spirit features collaborations with an array of producers, including David Foster, Humberto Gatica, Andy Hill, Jeff Lynne, Christopher Neil and Jim Steinman.

The album reunited Tyler with Steinman to record cover versions of "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" and "Making Love (Out of Nothing at All)".

[3] Tyler's cover of "Bridge over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel features an uncredited guest vocal by Lenny Kravitz, who could not be named due to contractual limitations imposed by his label Virgin Records.

In the following year, the album was re-issued in Germany with a cover of "Limelight" by The Alan Parsons Project replacing the remix of "Sexual Device".

[6][7] Tyler embarked on a 22-date tour of Germany, Austria and Switzerland in support of the album, beginning in Nuremberg on 1 April and concluding in Hof on 11 May 1996.

In September 2021, Free Spirit was reissued as part of a three-disc box set titled The East West Years 1995–1998 through Cherry Pop.

[9][10][11] In an interview with Night & Day magazine, Tyler expressed her frustration about East West's promotional strategy.

Writing for Dayton Daily News, Rich Eichhorn described the album as a "dated-sounding hodge-podge of pop, country and disco".

[20] In another negative review, Larry Printz of The Morning Call opined that the use of multiple producers and musical styles "smacks of desperation", describing the album as "mediocre drivel".

[19] In a retrospective review for AllMusic, critic Jose F. Promis noted that "Several songs on this album rate about average, but there are several shining moments which should have brought this set, from such an engaging singer, much more attention than the minimal it received".

[17] In a review of The East West Years box set for Classic Pop, John Earls described Free Spirit as "a sprawling mess where songs were left to drift far past their natural running time," opining that the album's producers "didn't seem to know what to do with such a gifted singer".