According to Go-Go's lead singer Belinda Carlisle, "How Much More" was written in early 1980 during a spate in which Caffey and Wiedlin wrote several other songs including "We Got the Beat" and "Lust to Love".

[2] San Francisco Examiner writer Michael Goldberg noted its lyrics as among several of the Go-Go's early songs that are about "romance and love – and could easily have been written a few decades [earlier].

"[6] Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt that on the album version, producer Richard Gottehrer "sounded down the band's rougher edges", making the song resemble early R.E.M.

[7] LiveAbout critic Steve Peake rated "How Much More" as the Go-Go's 2nd best song of the 1980s, calling it "a spirited, guitar-driven new wave classic that bridges the band's raw early work with its later polished pop.

"[8] Peake particularly praised Caffey's and Wiedlin's guitar playing but said that "it's ultimately the entire ensemble's synergy that turns this song into the band's finest hit single that never was.

[11] Baltimore Sun writer Geoffery Himes regarded the song as a classic comparable to the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and the Angels' "My Boyfriend's Back".