"[3] In a review of Everything's Different Now, Steve Pick of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote, "[The song] is the polished gem I expected, with a delightful tune and some great lyrics playing with the central image of ex-lovers observing each other through the two ends of a telescope, which changes the way each is seen by the other.
"[8] Jim Bohen of the Daily Record described the song as "a waltz on the order of Costello's 'New Amsterdam' - that is, lyrically intricate and musically lovely".
"[11] 'Til Tuesday[7] Additional personnel Production "The Other End of the Telescope" was recorded by Elvis Costello and his band, the Attractions, in 1996 for his seventeenth studio album All This Useless Beauty.
His version features altered and additional lyrics, which Costello wrote "lying on the floor of the studio while the band sat impatiently in the control room".
"[1] In a review of All This Useless Beauty, K. Zimmerman of Gavin Report wrote, "So strong is this Costello/Mann collaboration, that it casts a long shadow across the rest of the album.
"[14] Jeffrey Demerly of the Journal & Courier wrote, "Costello's voice and Nieve's fine piano playing are really the stars of this record, especially in numbers such as 'The Other End of the Telescope' and 'All This Useless Beauty'.
"[15] David Menconi of The News & Observer felt the song "would have sounded right at home" on Costello's "folksy" 1986 album King of America.
[16] Shane Danielsen of The Sydney Morning Herald commented, "'The Other End of the Telescope' shows again just how far he's come as a vocalist: using his strengths (a sleek velveteen croon in the lower register; that deep, sudden tremolo) to their fullest, interpreting as well as delivering his convoluted lyrics.
He considered the song to "stand as one of the purest bridges between Costello's brief sojourn from bouncier, snottier pop toward the vestige of the soft serenader".