[7] Unlike with previous albums, Redd Kross had to scramble to write or find all new songs for Phaseshifter.

"[2] The Vancouver Sun called the album "12 songs of endearing melodies and post-adolescent emotionalism ... enveloped in the fierce energy of the band's live performances.

"[11] The Virginian-Pilot labeled it "a fully convincing hard-rock record that could have been the follow-up to Cheap Trick at Budokan.

"[12] The Press-Telegram deemed the album "a brilliant merger of bubblegum and thrash-punk"; the Fort Worth Star-Telegram considered it "great trash-metal.

[15] AllMusic wrote that the band "seem more bent on cutting straightforward and driving, power pop/rock anthems than going in for their '80s-style, HR Pufnstuf form of garage psychedelia.