Originally, Warner Bros. had refused to release I Love Mekons because they thought it was not good enough.

After the Mekons parted ways with Loud Records, the album was released in 1993 on Quarterstick, a subsidiary of Touch and Go.

[2][3] Melody Maker's Dave Jennings described I Love Mekons as "simultaneously a brilliant, exhilarating pop record and an exploration of the assumptions behind other people’s pop records.

"[9] Robert Christgau gave the album a B+ grade, describing it as "love songs, laid out casually across disc and lyric sheet--a country album without a happy ending.

"[5] Greg Kot ranked I Love Mekons as his 10th favorite album of 1993,[10] and Mark Lepage of the Montreal Gazette named it his 4th favorite album of the year.