[4] The album has a more organic sound than the recent Art Official Age, features Booker T. Jones on engineering duties, and includes a large brass section (the "NPG Hornz") of five saxophonists, four trumpets and two trombones.

"[14] Matthew Horton, writing for NME, also commented on Prince's return to a familiar sound, stating that Hit n Run Phase Two is "reconnecting him with the funkiest (and occasionally crunkiest) essentials, if not always his superior sense of melody.

"[12] Andy Gill of The Independent believed it was perhaps Prince's best record in "a decade or two, and certainly the most confident and agreeable confirmation of his qualities for many a year.

[8] In a less enthusiastic review, John Murphy from musicOMH deemed Phase Two "wildly inconsistent" with some flashes of Prince's brilliance.

[11] David Drake from Pitchfork was more critical, writing that the album sounded "underwhelming ... From beginning to end, Prince seems more interested in establishing his proficiency with pop forms, demonstrating his facility with the materials to craft, as it were, a sturdy wooden table.