EMI executives believed that the male singer songwriter persona was no longer viable, so Ondrasik selected Five for Fighting as a stage name.

The hidden track "European B-Side" summarizes and explains some of these characters, saying that "Mr. Merry's in the garden / trying to tie his high-top shoes / Johnny's off on daff-dill mountain / praying for the news...Bella's taking ludes / Daddy's off without a pardon / But nothing left to lose.

In the 2010s and onward, Ondrasik frequently performed songs from Message for Albert in his string quartet and orchestral shows, such as "Ocean" and "White Picket Fence".

AllMusic compared the sounds of Five for Fighting's debut to Billy Joel, Ben Folds, and Steely Dan, calling Message for Albert "intelligent and well-crafted."

The review praised Ondrasik's "uncanny ability to take beautiful melodies like the simple piano phrasing of 'Day By Day' and weave them into stunning, multi-layered vocal arrangements replete with gorgeous string crescendos, each playing off each other like a well-oiled machine...a promising debut that sadly lost its shot when EMI spontaneously combusted after the record's release.