The single was released with three B-sides: two written by Saint Etienne's songwriting partnership of Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, "I Buy American Records" and "Hate Your Drug", and a cover version of La Poupée Qui Fait Non (No, No, No)", a live recording produced by the band's friend (and future Heavenly label mate) Edwyn Collins.

[4] Larry Flick from Billboard commented, "Songs like 'Hug My Soul' combine a familiar blend of airy modern pop with prominent dance beats and fairly aggressive execution.

"[5] In his weekly UK chart commentary, James Masterton said that Sarah Cracknell and the lads "return with what is probably not the most straightforward single they have ever released, moving away from the pretty pop tunes they have produced of late and going back to their ambient dub roots and the sort of sound that dominates their albums.

[11] Another NME editor, Paul Moody, said the song, "which, for all its Sub Sub disco nuances and '70s soul flute fills, is little but a shuffle through Andrea True Connection's 'More, More, More'.

[13] Tony Cross from Smash Hits praised it as a "piece of pop perfection",[14] while female pop-punk music duo Shampoo reviewed it for the magazine, giving it four out of five.

[18] In the video, Sarah Cracknell plays a young girl asleep with her stuffed toys; she dreams of being chased by a bear, but ultimately ends up having jelly and ice cream with him in his den, attired in a sultry black dress that had featured in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds are Forever, on which her father Derek Cracknell had served as a second unit director.

"We had a meeting to discuss locations and so on, and it was decided that I'd wear a dress of my mum's that had been worn by Jill St. John in Diamonds Are Forever," Cracknell recounted, "but that's another story.