"[9] AAJ's Andrey Henkin noted that, in relation to the music on Very Urgent, "McGregor's irrepressible spirit is becoming more obvious with brasher arranging and more open forms that owe a debt to the European avant-garde.

"[10] Writing for The Jazz Mann, Tim Owen stated that the album "stands up well alongside acknowledged classics of the genre," and likened the horn arrangements on "Years Ago Now" to "big band swing, albeit with all-out free expression.

"[7] In an article for The Independent, Andy Gill wrote: "The four blasts of semi-improvised jazz... demonstrate the symbiosis at work between the Europeans' free-jazz intensity and the Africans' more joyously euphoric sensibilities.

There are echoes of Sun Ra in the horn figures of 'Years Ago Now', while the unison riff of 'Up To Earth' recalls Bird'n'Diz's 'Salt Peanuts' in its brash good humour.

"[11] Paul Rigby of Record Collector called the album "magnificent" and "blissful," and stated: "there are no holds barred here, the arrangements roaming the savannah of McGregor's mind.