[7] Founding bandmember Jon Langford did not like the band's debut album, which he thought was incapably sung; he also lamented that it was released by Richard Branson's Virgin Records.

[11] The Morning Call wrote that "the Mekons raise the right questions with the proper amount of skepticism, idealism and rude humor, without seeming to follow a formula.

"[18] Chuck Eddy, in The Village Voice, concluded that "Punk Rock salvages plenty of odes to failure/disgrace/infidelity/life-during-wartime plus drunken rants about bowing to republic and employer from rare imports long sold to used-vinyl stores, updating them with a pint-glass accordion-and-fiddle two-step jigginess Jon Langford's merry men and women didn't perfect till 1983's English Dancing Master EP.

"[15] Robert Christgau determined that "one comparison is the eponymous hardcore album Rancid dropped in 2000 when ska felt played out, but this is sharper and more varied.

"[13] AllMusic wrote that "there is a certain ramshackle grace in them that offers the ghostly hint of 1977's chaotic joy, but being played by people who no longer have the comfort of naivete as a cushion against the outside world.