"[6] Author Chuck Crisafulli called it one of the most "rock n' roll" tracks the band ever recorded that provided an energizing and satisfying opener to In Utero, which immediately dispelled rumors that the album would be excessively abrasive and unlistenable.

[3] The opening lyrics, "Teenage angst has paid off well, now I'm bored and old," were a commentary on Cobain's public image, and his life as a celebrity since the unexpected success of Nirvana's second album, Nevermind, released in September 1991.

[3][8] The lyric, "If she floats then she is not a witch like we had thought", was an attack on the media for its perceived misrepresentation of Cobain's wife Courtney Love, vocalist and guitarist of the American rock band Hole, comparing her treatment to a witchhunt and the practice of subjecting women accused of witchcraft to a public ordeal by water.

John Mulvey of the NME wrote that "any album that kicks off with a song as beautifully bludgeoned as ‘Serve The Servants’, and a line as tellingly funny as 'Teenage angst has paid off well/ Now I’m bored and old', must have something going for it.

"[11] Predicting the first lines as "soon-to-be-famous," Los Angeles Times writer Chris Willman wrote, "If you’d guess from that opening that Cobain is going to spend a lot of the record commenting sarcastically on the success and attention he’s enjoyed (not) in the last couple of years, you’d be positively prescient.

"[13] In his September 1993 review of the album for Time, Christopher John Farley wrote that compared to "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies," the two songs later remixed by Scott Litt at the band's request, "many of the Albini pieces sound ravaged, almost ruined; but as with buried treasures, there are rewards for persistence and exploration.

"[14] David Cavanagh compared the song to "Rid Of Me," the title track of the second studio album by English rock musician PJ Harvey, released in May 1993 and also produced by Albini.

"[15] Stuart Berman for Pitchfork remarked, "The scowling verses of “Serve the Servants” are countered by the chorus’ soothing incantation of the song’s title, as if Cobain had to anesthetize himself in order to answer his audience’s populist demands.

"[16] Reviewing the 20th anniversary reissue of In Utero in September 2013, Christopher John Farley of Time wrote that "compared to songs on Nevermind, 'Serve the Servants' and 'tourette’s' sound unmixed and unfinished, but not as a detriment.

[17] In August 2014, Paste ranked "Serve the Servants" at number 37 on their "50 Best Grunge Songs" list, with Michael Danaher writing, “The verse’s warbling surfer-esque riff and the chorus’s raw, coarse hook was a masterwork that furthered Cobain’s knack for bruised and brooding songwriting.