"[2] Both Anderson and Vangelis wanted to work together just to have a fun time, the former explaining, "I won't say effortless, but the enjoyment of making music without prior conceptions, without deciding what it's going to be.

"[2] Sounds writer John Gill, who interviewed the pair for an article regarding how Short Stories was made, said that the two apparently wanted to make an album that would be out of the styles they had commonly been labeled under by both the press and consumers with past releases.

A Smash Hits journalist put the blame entirely on Anderson for making the album "entirely unlistenable"; he jokingly described his lyrics as "the kind of 'cosmic' drivel that gets hippies a bad name", and felt that the "tuneless" melodies were written by just coming up with notes and pitches at random.

He criticised it for being more focused on melody than making the arrangements less "amorphous" and "paper-thin", an issue also present on the last Yes album Anderson sang on before working on Short Stories, Tormato.

[9] In 1982, R. S. Murthi reviewed the album for the New Straits Times as one of the "Aesthetes of electronics", spotlighting Anderson's "spirited energy" and Vangelis' skillful musical arrangements.