[1] New songs that were due to appear on Reminisce—"Be Without You", "One", "MJB da MVP", and "Can't Hide from Luv"—were all transferred to the new album and the release date for the greatest hits was rescheduled to the spring of 2006.

Robert Sandall, writing for The Telegraph, felt that the "18-track résumé of the career of the 21st century's first lady of soul intends to deviate from the greatest-hits formula is clear from the start.

"[8] musicOMH editor Neil Jones found that "Blige is undoubtedly one of the fascinating figures of modern pop culture, so even though there's more than a suspicion of Christmas cash-in here, and omissions are made, Reflections (A Retrospective) amply represents every extreme of her ouvre.

"[4] Similarly, Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine noted that "the tracks previously unavailable on a Mary album make this a valuable purchase for diehard collectors, but it will be useless to more casual fans.

[9] In the United Kingdom, the album debuted and peaked at number forty only, but was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), for shipments of 300,000 copies.