Ken Emerson, in Rolling Stone, held up the album as an "underrated" one in the Kinks' repertoire.

Club described it as "sprawling... with its radio announcements and melodramatic, sub-Andrew Lloyd Webber musical numbers, is a wash, the sound of a once-great band losing the plot.

"[7] AllMusic referred to it as "a mess, an impenetrable jumble of story, theater, instrumentals, 'announcements,' unfinished ideas, guest singers, and, on occasion, a song or two.

"[8] The live performances of the material were much better received, with one critic going so far as to say that the Preservation shows were the first successful fusion of rock and roll with theater: "Ray Davies has finally pulled it off— the Kinks-based theatrical production of Preservation is a great rock concert and a perfectly coordinated musical.

The 1998 CD reissue of Act 2 on Velvel featured the outtake "Slum Kids", a popular live piece for the Kinks.