[citation needed] The album was originally released in the UK by 4AD in August 1986 (CAD607) on LP, CD and cassette.

The band later resurrected the re-issue project, issuing the 2-CD compilation In a Doghouse in 1998 on 4AD (DAD607CD) in the UK, and on Rykodisc in the USA.

AllMusic calls the album a "powerful debut" whose "startling collision of punk energy, folky melodicism, and Kristin Hersh's mercurial voice and lyrics...puts the work of most self-consciously 'tortured' artists to shame."

The review praises the record's "fluid, effortless emotional shifts"—also described as "violent, vibrant mood swings".

The fragmented sound of Throwing Muses, a college girl's dining hall conversation set to antagonistic electric screeching, was painful, self-loathing, man-love-hating, ".