It also marked the return of drummer Don Powell to the studio after suffering a near-fatal car crash in July, which briefly threw the band's existence into doubt.

[4] In a fan question and answer session with Lea in 2017, he revealed his wish that the song had been given a full single release in the UK and elsewhere: "After "Merry Christmas Everybody" and the massive success of 1973 it was hard to find a follow-up quickly.

[4] Upon release, Cash Box selected the song as one of their "picks of the week" and said: "Slade has built their reputation on their brash, loud, hard rocking quality that made them England's #1 rockers.

"[11] In a review of Old New Borrowed and Blue, New Musical Express considered the song as "one of the LP's prime contenders for single status".

[13] In a retrospective review, Dave Thompson of AllMusic commented: ""We're Gonna Raise the Roof," "When the Lights Are Out," and "My Town," too, offer little that Slade wasn't already well renowned for and that, perhaps, was what the band members were thinking as well.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine, in an AllMusic review of Cheap Trick's The Latest, described the song as an "overlooked Slade gem".

He said: "A certain congruence of style between Holder/Lea and Lennon/McCartney has been remarked upon before, but nowhere is it more clearly demonstrated than when Jimmy Lea steps forward to take a lead vocal on this easily overlooked album track from spring '74's Old New Borrowed and Blue.