Guitarist Robin Campbell drew up a list of possible tracks which were then whittled down to a final choice of ten following discussion among the band members.

Ali Campbell told Billboard, "Nobody was as shocked as we were to find out that Neil Diamond wrote 'Red Red Wine'... To me, it was always a Tony Tribe song.

As Ansell recounted to Classic Pop magazine in 2017, "We pitched the idea to Virgin of creating an illustration for each song so that as and when they were released as singles we would have ready-made images.

In Melody Maker Colin Irwin expressed his irritation at his fellow journalists' insistence on bringing up the band's left-wing political views in articles about them, saying, "UB40's mode of escape from these glib cliches is to make their own highly specialised version of Bowie's Pin-Ups or Ferry's These Foolish Things.

What may appear to be a simple form of escapism has in fact galvanised this band, snatching them out of their increasingly confined introversion and seemingly opened their eyes to bold new horizons... To make comparisons with the originals is to miss the point.

However, he welcomed the change from the political stance of the group's own songs, calling the cover versions "gentle, sometimes caressing, a shallow groove far preferable to the morose intensity of the group's usual tug at the lapels... Everything blurs perfectly there, the rippling draft of the rhythm, the stewed warmth of the saxophone, all melting around the dry edge of the vocal.

Sometimes UB hit the spot of rock-reggae with absolute accuracy, and its power to turn ears is far superior to the weight of their customary glam pamphleteering.

Considine of Rolling Stone also gave the album a positive review: while criticising the vocals, he also noted that "UB40's ingenuity and unmistakable affection for the material keeps the comparisons from being too lopsided" and felt that each song "retains the spirit of the original while also capturing a modern feel".

[16] In Rolling Stone's end-of-year round-up of 1984's key albums, Kurt Loder stated that "UB40 ... not only makes these songs their own but brings them into the Eighties without betraying their buoyant period spirit...

[12] Reviews of the 2015 deluxe edition remained positive, but lamented that Labour of Love didn't have the intensity of the band's earlier, more political, records.

[14] Lois Wilson of Mojo agreed, observing that "Revisited now, it seems caught up with nostalgia... On the back of Labour of Love's huge international success, UB40 became reggae's world ambassadors and their focus shifted; they'd make political records again but never anything as potent as Signing Off or Present Arms, instead relying on the surefire hit potential of further cover albums".