The Radiohead singer, Thom Yorke, described "Idioteque" as "an attempt to capture that exploding beat sound where you're at the club and the PA's so loud, you know it's doing damage".

[11] In his review of Kid A for Spin, Simon Reynolds wrote that "Idioteque" "does for the modern dance what PiL and Joy Division's 'She's Lost Control' did for disco.

[5][14] Keith Cameron of NME wrote that despite its "naff" title and "gauche" attempt at creating "garage-noir", the track is "a nonetheless brilliantly persuasive two-step litany of paranoia, fear and unease.

[15] Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger dismissed "Idioteque" as "plain awful, a piss-poor tilt at Aphex Twin's 'Windowlicker' with Yorke yammering excruciatingly over the top".

[16] However, Rock's Backpages reviewer Barney Hoskyns wrote that while "Idioteque" – and the album's title track – arguably draw "a little too transparently from the Aphex Twin vaults", they nonetheless contribute "something irresistibly powerful to the Richard James template".

[17] Brent DiCrescenzo of Pitchfork also commented on its perceived influence from Warp Records, adding that the track "clicks and thuds like Aphex Twin and Bjork's Homogenic, revealing brilliant new frontiers for the 'band'.

[22] In 2021 and 2024, Rolling Stone ranked "Idioteque" number 48 on its lists of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time", describing it as "the foreboding, spellbinding centrepiece of Kid A".