"Hey Jealousy" was inspired by Hopkins' desire to get back with his ex-girlfriend Cathy Swafford, who had left him because of his drinking and cheating.

But he's not giving up just yet, heading into the chorus full of hope as he attempts to sell her on a promise of "Tomorrow we can drive around this town and let the cops chase us around/ The past is gone but something might be found to take its place".There's too much self-awareness here to win a reasonable person over ("If you don't expect too much from me, you might not be let down.").

[7]Hopkins, who was dismissed from the band due to alcohol abuse before New Miserable Experience was released,[8] was upset that Wilson changed the lyric.

[10] Although New Miserable Experience initially stalled in the charts, it received a second promotional push that benefited "Hey Jealousy" in the form of a new music video.

[15] AllMusic staff writer Rick Anderson identified "Hey Jealousy" and "Until I Fall Away" as the two songs from New Miserable Experience "that leave the deepest impression".

[17]But despite this context, Wasoba still lauded the track as a "bona fide have-a-kick-ass-summer jam": "Through all the potential melancholy, 'Hey Jealousy' is still a party.

The levity in the song's arrangement—the jangling guitar arpeggios, the shivers of tambourine—belie the weight of the addiction and mental illness Hopkins found himself tangled in while writing, which dragged him to his death.

"[18] In 2023, Tyler Golsen of Far Out called "Hey Jealousy" "a candy-coated hand grenade than can still catch you off guard 35 years after Hopkins first conceived of it".

Golsen also described the song as "a strange beacon of hope and optimism" and a "mix of despondent lyrics and aggressively catchy pop-rock guitars".