[10] Paul Moody also offered qualified praise in NME, deeming it "not the absolute tour de force we may have hoped for", but nonetheless "three-quarters of the way to marking a complete rebirth.

"[6] Rolling Stone's Tom Sinclair wrote that Wild Wood "gives retrochic an unexpected twist" and found it "charmingly anomalous, a smart, left-field stroke capable of transporting the listener to a dimly remembered land of pop delights.

[4] In a retrospective review, AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine lauded Wild Wood as Weller's "first true masterwork since ending the Jam", further crediting it with helping to "kick off the trad rock that dominated British music during the '90s.

[8] Paul Moody reappraised the album more effusively in Uncut in 2007, writing that the album's "nostalgic mood hit a nerve with both lapsed Jam fans and young upstarts Blur and Oasis", and that "it's Weller's unshakeable self-belief which marks Wild Wood out as a landmark in British rock.

Within a year of its release ... grunge would be over, Britpop would be in full swing, and fears of rock's demise dismissed as a bad dream.