Written and produced by Sly Stone over two years, Fresh has been described as a lighter and more accessible take on the dense, drum machine-driven sound of its landmark 1971 predecessor There's a Riot Goin' On.

[citation needed] As with There's a Riot Goin' On, Stone held on to the Fresh masters well beyond the record's official release, constantly remixing and re-recording the tracks.

In 1991, Sony Music, by then owner of the Epic catalog, accidentally issued a sequencing of Fresh on CD featuring alternate takes of every song except "In Time", which remained unchanged.

When Sony BMG reissued Fresh in CD and digital download formats for Sly & the Family Stone's 40th anniversary, five alternate mixes were included as bonus tracks.

In a review for Crawdaddy!, Vernon Gibbs found the music to be "quite worthy of the founder of progressive soul", saying it offers "plenty of ass-shaking rhythms for the present and reason for optimism about the future".

While crediting Stone for "open[ing] himself up lyrically" albeit for the sake of making commercial music, he found the album to be "both new and cheeky: It aims for honesty and decadence at the same time.