Although members of the E Street Band occasionally performed on the album, Springsteen recorded most of the parts himself, often with drum machines and synthesizers.

The New York Times writer Jon Pareles said that Springsteen "turned inward" on this album, writing about "love gone wrong" in response to changes in his personal life, particularly his crumbling marriage to Julianne Phillips.

[5] Pareles said that most of the songs on the album were about the difficulty of mature love rather than Springsteen's earlier arena rock anthems to the working man.

[8] The 1988 Springsteen and E Street Band Tunnel of Love Express tour would showcase the album's songs, sometimes in arrangements courtesy of the Miami Horns.

[11] Irish filmmaker Meiert Avis directed the music videos for "Brilliant Disguise", "One Step Up", "Tougher Than the Rest", and "Tunnel of Love".

"[22] He particularly praised the album's introspective second half in his consumer guide for The Village Voice, saying that it showed Springsteen's decency and ability for self-examination.

[23]In The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll, Tunnel of Love finished second in the voting for the year's best album.

"You really shouldn't be allowed to hear this record until you've been married for a few years", Hyden wrote, "though at that point it might strike a little too close to home.

If Ingmar Bergman had been born in Freehold and cut his artistic teeth at the Stone Pony, he would've made this record in place of Scenes From a Marriage.