"[7] Carlos Santana was moving from rock toward jazz and fusion,[8] experiencing a "spiritual awakening",[9] while McLaughlin was about to experience the break-up of the Mahavishnu Orchestra after being criticized by other band members.

"[1] The song's first part is extensive, high-tempo improvisation by Santana, alternating between quick phrases and long, sustained notes (including one that runs from 3:29 to 4:03).

Midway through the song and introduced by the "life divine" chant, McLaughlin takes over with mostly high-speed staccato bursts and riffs.

After the slow introductory statement (the part which resembles Smith's arrangement), most of the piece consists of soloing over two chords accompanied by a loping bass and Latin percussion.

Of Larry Young's organ contribution here, Paul Stump, in Go Ahead John, wrote: "with its overlapping flurries of triplets, [it] is a moment of pure genius, worthy of mention in its own right, a musical equivalent of a swarm of surreally coloured butterflies.

In addition to noting the resemblance of "Let Us Go" to Smith's arrangement, Bob Palmer referred to the "superficial treatments" of Coltrane material,[18] while Paul Stump, author of Go Ahead John, a McLaughlin biography, is negative about the album's execution and direction, saying it was, "in retrospect, a spiritually-hobbled album", criticizing Santana's tone and McLaughlin's "technophiliac tendencies" and "electronic gimmickry", and a "plink-plonk conga-heavy foursquare vamp all too typical of Santana" in "A Love Supreme".

"[14] Robert Palmer, writing for Rolling Stone, is ambivalent about the album, calling it "loud and insistent...depend[ent] on monochord drones and simple modes for its structure and on sheer screaming force for much of its effect."

"[6] Later, in a positive review of Santana's Welcome (1973), Palmer said the album "was simply a series of ecstatic jams on Coltrane and Coltrane-influenced material.

Thom Jurek says Young is the gel that holds the two very different guitar players together;[14] Robert Palmer says "that the sensitive organ solos on Love Devotion Surrender were the best things on that album.