[9] The cover shows the artist as "The Mama's and the Papa's", a grammatical error that has not been corrected on any of the album's reissues.

[10] The album received a positive retrospective review in Rolling Stone, in which critic Rob Sheffield remarked "The Mamas and the Papas celebrated all the sin and sleaze of Sixties L.A. with folksy harmonies, acoustic guitars, and songs that told inquiring minds way more than they wanted to know.

He described the album as a dark look at L.A. culture that sounds accessible and optimistic thanks in large part to Lou Adler's production.

[12] Bruce Eder wrote for AllMusic that the album "embraced folk-rock, pop/rock, pop, and soul, and also reflected the kind of care that acts like the Beatles were putting into their records at the time."

He added that it had a stronger polish than the group's other albums, in part because it predated the personal conflicts that tainted their later works.