The song features multiple musicians playing alternate instruments due to the frequent absence of Richards during recording sessions of the period.
"Moonlight Mile" has been largely considered an under-appreciated work of the band, with music critics Bill Janovitz and Robert Christgau praising the track's composition.
However, Mick Jagger later dismissed any suggestions of the song being an allegory for drug use, and stated "The feeling I had at that moment was how difficult it was to be touring and how I wasn’t looking forward to going out and doing it again.
[12] Writing for Slate, pop critic Jack Hamilton praised the track, referring to it as Sticky Fingers' "strangest and most unique recording" that is "an intoxicating mix of exotic and intimate".
[13] Classic Rock History critic Matthew Pollard rated it as the Rolling Stones' best deep cut, calling it an "epic in every way imaginable" and saying that "the vibe gives off such a Winter atmosphere" but "once the song accretes towards the climactic ending, it absolutely explodes into something so tearfully optimistic that it sends the body into goosebumps.