For its release as a single, the six-and-a-half minute album version of "Friday Night" was edited and remixed by Mike Bigwood and Michael Ward.

[10] On its release, William Shaw of Smash Hits considered "Friday Night" to be "a thumping disco tune" but added that the "gosh-isn't-it-tough-on-the-streets words are definitely a bit silly".

[13] Roger Morton of Record Mirror praised "Friday Night" as "a warming piece of even-tempered pop" which he felt was "thankfully less saccharine soaked" than "Weak in the Presence of Beauty".

[15] Gavin Martin of New Musical Express stated, "Fusing Eastern modal touches with a neo-industrial clatter, they've tried to give this an acid tang, but it's a miscalculation.

The core of the song is driven so hard, declaimed so forcefully, that it drys up, cracks and disintegrates with no sense of loss or longing being grasped or explored."

"[17] Jim Whiteford of the Kilmarnock Standard praised the song as "catchy, upward pushing mid-tempo rock" and believed it had the potential to reach the top 10.

"[18] In a review of Weak in the Presence of Beauty, Music Week commented, "The title track didn't make it as a single, the inferior but easier on the ear 'Friday Night' could do the trick.