The project was founded and led by disc jockey and former Housemartins bassist Norman Cook, who produced the album alone and intended Beats International to be a collective of permanent and temporary members including singers and other performers.

"[13] Critic Nathaniel Wice described Let Them Eat Bingo as a worldbeat album with familiar samples which take unexpected directions and "reggae and Latin rhythms abound".

[12] In The Village Voice, critic Robert Christgau emphasised the album's genre combinations: "Norman Cook has gone too far—the samples in his kitchen sink are just too blatant, too eclectic.

Whether he's constructing a new rock and roll subgenre from blues, Burundi, and some kind of jump band or embellishing Herman Kelly's "Dance to the Drummer's Beat" with who knows what horns and African huzzahs or revivifying pleasant little tunes you can't quite place and are sort of surprised to hear again, Cook's music is perfect for people who like more stuff than they have time to listen to.

[2] "Dub Be Good to Me" was built from an instrumental Cook B-side entitled "Invasion of the State Agents", which sampled the Clash's "The Guns of Brixton" and an Ennio Morricone snippet and incorporated record scratching and a kazoo-style sound.

[15][1] The resulting song is considered reggae and trip hop in style,[3][5] and was described by Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger as "the Wild Bunch/Massive Attack dub-dance Bristol sound, commercialised before it had even come close to breaking through.

[5] "The Ragged Trousered Perussionists" is a house record that makes use of Latin flutes,[5][3] while "For Spacious Lies" juxtaposes serious lyrics about grievance and the international black market, with a lighthearted vibe.

[21] In the United States, it was released on 20 April 1990 by Elektra Records and promoted as "an inventive mix of unshakeable pop melodies, world music references, choice sampling and club floor rhythms.

[1] In February 1990, the song reached number one on the UK Singles Chart,[23] and it ultimately became the year's seventh biggest seller,[26] helping to secure the album's success.

Writer Colin Larkin nonetheless notes: "This 'creative theft' may have diminished royalty cheques, but the interpretation of various styles and even passages of music proved a deliberate strategy in Beats International's armoury.

[23] In a review for the Chicago Tribune, Robert Tanzilo hailed Let Them Eat Bingo as "one of the more refreshing dance records of late" and "a wonderful mess" with fully successful genre fusions.

[12] Melinda Rickelman, writing for The Crisis, viewed the mixture of styles more positively, praising the album's unpredictability and "fine young beats" and recommending the record to Deee-Lite fans.

"[11] Mademoiselle reviewer Christian Logan Wright hailed the album as "a journey through hip-hop, the '70s, many voices (high male, low female), distant cultures and [Cook's] record collection.

[42] In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Rick Anderson named the record an "Album Pick" and described it as Cook "just showing how much fun you can have with a sampler and flawless taste in beats".

[13] For Trouser Press, Glenn Kenny wrote: "At its best, this is clever stuff that, beyond being enjoyable strictly on its own, provocatively recontextualizes its sources and creates an endlessly fascinating cross-cultural weave."

[36] In 2014, Derek Staples of Spectrum Culture felt the album had been unfairly obscured and commented that "Beats International created a cacophony of sound that resisted the impulse of dulling the individual elements.