[10] Mike Read of Smash Hits wrote, "The winning combination of Gary Kemp's songs and Tony Hadley's voice contrives unchecked, although it has neither the aggression of 'Musclebound' nor the sensitivity of 'True'.

"[12] An article in Billboard magazine at the time of the song's UK release reported the band was "believed to be the first major pop act to make a high-budget promotional music video on location in Hong Kong.

"[13] Spandau saxophonist Steve Norman told Smash Hits, "We don't just use these locations for the sake of it… 'Highly Strung' is about pressure and claustrophobia—there are more people per square inch in Hong Kong than anywhere in the world.

The last scene shows her riding a bike along a country road and approaching a gated chain-link fence with barbed wire, which was supposed to convey her escape to China to find relief.

[c] When the band returned to Hong Kong during their 2015 world tour, Richard Lord of the South China Morning Post described the video as "a retrospectively hilarious collection of Sino-clichés.