The band's Tracey Thorn told CMJ New Music Monthly her partner and bandmate Ben Watt had been buying guitars and wanted to make an electric-guitar-based album.

[6] Reviewing the 2012 reissue, Jess Harvell of Pitchfork called Love Not Money "a near-total reinvention [of Everything but the Girl] and a complete stylistic mish-mash".

[7] Harvell also said, "it's the most soporific and studiously 'serious' album EBTG ever made, and parts of it are a real drag"; that the title track "Love Not Money" "plays the dreaminess of 80s soft-focus indie against the stark [political] reality that so much 80s pop was rushing to avoid"; and called "Sean" and its tin flute instrumentation "Celtic kitsch" that is "so ham-fisted you'll cringe".

[7] Also reviewing the reissue, the BBC's Ian Wade compared the album with the music of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions and The Smiths, and wrote that "it sounded a desire for EBTG to be heard above the bigger crowds [Everything but the Girl] were beginning to play to".

[14] In 2015, Emily Barker of NME rated Love Not Money in 16th place on her list of "50 Albums Released In 1985 That Still Sound Great Today", saying it "confirmed the duo as one of our nation's little treasures ..."[15] [2] [16] [17] ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.