"Human Touch" has since Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for over one million copies sold in the US, and was nominated for Best Rock Vocal Performance at the 1993 Grammy Awards.

[8] The album was originally set for a spring-summer 1991 release date, having been pushed back from early 1991, but was once again halted when Springsteen began recording Lucky Town later that year.

Rolling Stone gave the album 4 stars and noted that the songs "explore the movement from disenchanted isolation to a willingness to risk love and its attendant traumas again."

However Bill Wyman of The Chicago Reader gave the album a very harsh review, calling it "the worst piece of [expletive] you can imagine coming from a talent on Springsteen's level."

"[16] Though his initial review was more positive, Greg Kot of The Chicago Tribune later wrote that "in retrospect, Human Touch tried to re-create the stadium-rocking aura of an E Street album, with session musicians unsuccessfully replacing the road-tested band.

"Part Man, Part Monkey", a track originally recorded during the Tunnel of Love session and performed on that tour, was re-recorded and released as a B-side and on Tracks along with other outtakes such as "Trouble In Paradise", "Sad Eyes", "Leavin' Train", "Seven Angels", "My Lover Man", "When the Lights Go Out", "Over the Rise", "Goin' Cali" and "Loose Change".