The upside-down cover of the album features an oil painting by artist Margaret Keane, and the liner notes are in reverse.

[4] Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A−, noting the "intriguing side trips into forests of thick guitar chords".

Club wrote that In Reverse "finds [Sweet] once again at his best", adding that "its 14 tracks are uniformly strong, with muscular rockers ("Split Personality," "Write Your Own Song") competing for attention with smooth, lush, sugary fare ("If Time Permits," the knockout ballads "Trade Places" and "Worse To Live").

[1] Jerry McCulley of Amazon.com wrote, "Epic in scope and harmonically intoxicating," adding, "this is an album by an artist measuring the distance between his reach and his grasp, his good sense and self-indulgence, his confidence growing with every back-to-the future track.

For the nine minute thirty-seven seconds closing song "Thunderstorm", Sweet combined three bass guitar lines and other selections, such as "If Time Permits", hint of sound/song reversal as implied in the album's title.