The group's lyrics exhibit contemporary hip hop attitudes and traditional soul themes, with songs about unruly women, low-key ballads, and more danceable tracks.

[1] They also worked with engineers Toby Wright and Gerry Brown, musician Keith Crouch, and singer Vanessa Williams, who sang on "Oakland Stroke".

[5] Musically and lyrically, it fuses older soul influences and contemporary hip hop attitudes,[6] along with the latter genre's use of samples and digital rhythm tracks.

[8] Janine McAdams of Spin finds most of the songs to be "embellished with an allusion, an imitation or an out-and-out sample", and writes that the group draws on "various musical influences—Parliament, Duke Ellington, Pointer Sisters, James Brown, among others."

"Let's Have a Good Time" samples the Pointer Sisters' 1973 song "Yes We Can Can", and "Oakland Stroke", a paean to the group's hometown, has "Jungle Boogie"-like horn riffs.

's songwriting on The Revival disregarded "social commentary or political posturing" in favor of "the preservation of R&B's signature, the perpetuation of the soul tradition, and—on the lighter side—the glorification of barbeque, the boogaloo and the booty on a Saturday night.

[5] The latter song features aggressive bass, a funky break, doo-wop verses,[6] a blues riff that the group's guitarist D'wayne Wiggins learned from his father, and ideas from pianist Vince Guaraldi's music for Peanuts television specials.

Group drummer Timothy Christian played most of the song's instruments, and bassist Raphael Wiggins wrote its lyrics about a man longing for a woman who was in southern California.

[16] On January 28, 1991, The Revival was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipments of one million copies in the United States.

[20] Reviewing the album for the Chicago Tribune in 1990, Greg Kot wrote that The Revival's "lull" adult contemporary ballads were redeemed by songs with "Sly Stone, Ray Charles, doo-wop and Motown influences".

[7] In Entertainment Weekly, Greg Sandow applauded the band for "building momentum by adding new elements as the songs proceed" and "setting the course for whatever future the [R&B] genre is likely to have".

[15] Dennis Hunt of the Los Angeles Times said although their "offbeat R&B hybrids" are occasionally "too busy and intentionally oddball", "the Tonys' explorations ... are mostly successful".

[5] Orlando Sentinel writer Parry Gettelman said the dance-oriented tracks "have great grooves and a warmth, humor and vocal finesse sadly lacking in the Top 40",[23] while Geoffrey Himes from The Washington Post viewed the album as a promising debut with "perfect party music".

[26] Janine McAdams from Spin said the band "transformed the simplest ditties into jammin' anthems that assault the ear and move the feet"; she continued to say: Revival works as evidence of the wide-ranging continuum of R&B, the ability of sterling soul to remain fresh for the new generation.

[27] AllMusic editor Alex Henderson said the group "managed to appeal to urban contemporary audiences while expressing a love of 1970s soul and funk" with artistic merit and distinction from the largely unambitious R&B records released in 1990.

[28] Sam Chennault from Rhapsody felt in spite of its new jack swing hit "Feels Good", most of the album embraced "Bay Area funk and hinted at the subsequent innovations of key member Raphael Saadiq".

[29] Robert Christgau was somewhat less enthusiastic and gave it a two-star honorable mention, indicating a "likable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well enjoy".