The album contains darker content than previous Primus efforts, featuring lyrics dealing with murder ("My Name Is Mud"), suicide ("Bob"), and alienation ("Nature Boy").

called it "a focused mess" that is driven by the "extraordinary percussive attack" from Alexander and Claypool, with guitarist Larry LaLonde "[hovering] on the edge of the action, throwing out sporadic mutant chords and droning feedback when the fancy takes him.

"[8] Tom Sinclair, for Rolling Stone, describes the album as "an amalgam of elements that have no reason to be joined together in a sane universe", noting that "the band invokes the circa '69 Mothers of Invention and Trout Mask Replica-era Captain Beefheart as often as it does George Clinton or Bootsy Collins."

He concludes that "hard-core funk-metal freaks may find it all a bit diffuse, but if you think its high time surrealism entered the mosh pits of America, Pork Soda just may be your cup of meat.

He notes that the album "showcases the band's ever-increasing level of musicianship" and that "[their] ensemble interplay continues to grow in complexity and musicality", although "[the] material isn't quite as consistent as Seas of Cheese".

Despite praising some songs, he felt a "slight predictability" had crept into the band's "winning, weirdo ways", with Claypool's melodramatic singing "blurring the shades of black humor in his lyrics," and that despite Primus' inventive complexity, "the herky-jerky time and tempo changes don't always provide enough variety.

"[15] In The Rough Guide to Rock (1999), Alex Ogg called it Primus' breakthrough album and wrote that while they were not original, "you can forgive a band a great deal if they take themselves so (un)seriously and deliver songs and catchy and immediate at these.

[17] He stated that while it benefitted from the Lollapalooza tour that Primus played on, the record was less inspired than its predecessors, adding that "apart from the clicking tempo gimmickry of 'My Name is Mud' and a brief percussion solo from drummer Herb ('Wounded Knee'), there isn't a single new idea on Pork Soda.