[7] Guitar players Melissa Farris and Margaret McCartney employed fuzz tones on the album and also made use of technically inferior, "trashy" sound equipment.

"[16] Tulsa World called the album "fun, gritty pop," noting Farris's "reverence for the Pretenders/Blondie ethos.

"[17] Entertainment Weekly opined that "sonic departures like the slinky antifashion anthem 'Paper Dolls' and the flamboyantly James Bondish 'Dr.

"[12] The Dayton Daily News wrote: "Meaty hooks and solid crunch back up songs that mostly pick on campus rock-band preptiles who overindulge in, um, passably clever pop-cultural strip mining.

"[18] AllMusic wrote that the "heady concoction of fizzy pop hooks, teen melodrama, slamming punk, and misfit glee makes My Way or the Highway an intoxicating punk-pop rush.