In Melody Maker, Colin Irwin called Jones "the aural equivalent of painting by numbers" and that although the sentiments expressed in the lyrics were worthy ones, "his sermons are embarrassingly glib".

"[15] In Sounds, Tibet called Human's Lib "an LP of simple/simplistic electronic-pop tunes, irretrievably lightweight, that offer nothing new except more music to tap your feet and grin inanely to".

[12] In the US, Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone stated that Jones "simply doesn't demonstrate the imagination or songwriting skill to produce anything truly memorable", and that "too often, his compositions are poor pastiches of already overworked synth exercises".

[13] More positive reviews came from Betty Page in Record Mirror, who said the album provided "lashings of beaty, intensely danceable chunks of electropop alternated with sincere and heartfelt one-man-and-his-piano ballads.

"[11] Mike DeGagne of AllMusic was more favourable in a retrospective review and stated that Human's Lib "is fueled by the nonstop synth-pop hooks and brightly textured melodies that went on to be a trademark of Howard Jones".

In May 2024, Cherry Red Records released new special edition versions of both Human's Lib and the follow-up album, Dream into Action as CD + Blu-ray packages.