[5] Desperately broke at the time, Forster said, "A moment of brightness for me was writing the music for "Part Company", the strummed folkie chords setting up the possibility of telling a story, not a fragment.

"[6] In 2016, Forster wrote that "Part Company" was one of a number of songs he still played, and "were the beginning of a more mature writing style where I fused the strumming of my late seventies tunes to the curves and kinks of the past few years.

"[9] In a more detailed review of the song, Raggett states that it "demonstrates so many of the Go-Betweens' core strengths it's practically a role model for anyone seeking inspiration -- a literate but not obnoxiously so lyric, a fine lead performance from Forster, an arrangement that throws in some subtle tweaks (and a suddenly all the more intense chorus) to the straightforward electric/acoustic combination.

The keyboards throwing sound like a nervous, uncomfortable wail, Lindy Morrison's drums are among her strongest, and the whole song seems to capture an uneasy combination of diffidence and sudden yearning down to its fadeout.

"[12] Steve Bell advises that "the song features strong lyrics and some serious six-string interplay (the combination of Forster and McLennan’s guitars that would later become so important basically started here) but never really managed to gather much traction.