The tracks on the album were picked by Mike Scott himself.

He told Melody Maker in 1994, "Working on the selection with Chrysalis has helped me come to terms with who I was in those days, to learn to accept and appreciate this young man, singing his heart out.

"[3] Upon its release, John Mulvey of NME praised The Secret Life of the Waterboys 81–85 as an "impeccable trainspotter's collection" which "dips into the sizeable Waterboys' archive for a relentlessly stirring journey round the fringes of their first three albums".

He noted that Mike Scott's "frazzled romantic vision still hits hard even today" and added, "He was so much more stylish and convincing than the rest [the Waterboys' 'Celtic' contemporaries such as U2, Simple Minds and Big Country], always endearingly carried away by the sheer mind-blowing scope of the life he was trying to describe.

He made the definitive music for mountain-tops and deserted beaches, for crazed, excitable dreams in adolescent bedrooms.