[5] Trouser Press wrote that "Zumpano is able to fight off the potential for coyness in its polka dot endeavors and ambitious enough to raise the ante with dramatic horns and pedal steel, treating period evocation as an intermediate goal rather than the stylistic finish line.

"[4] The Washington Post wrote that "the proceedings are sometimes a little arch, but Zumpano and company usually marshal the melodies to keep their concept from flagging.

"[9] In a retrospective review, Magnet wrote that the album's "best songs ('The Party Rages On', 'Temptation Summary', 'I Dig You') were on par with the Brill Building breezy-listening pop that inspired them, possessing the sort of pristine, heartfelt, melancholy melodies that were all but banished from the airwaves by 1995.

"[10] AllMusic wrote that "the freshness of Zumpano's sound, combined with adventurous melodies and rhythms, makes this an essential piece of work.

opined that Look What the Rookie Did "combines peerless tunefulness with instrumental complexity (guitars, keyboards, backing vocals and horns all stacked Yurtle high), topped with [Carl] Newman's incomparable, lispy vocals.