[1] The album features collaborations from longtime Saint Etienne associate Ian Catt, as well as Richard X and former Xenomania members Tim Powell and Nick Coler.

[4][6][7] The second track "I've Got Your Music" blends "pristine dance-pop keyboards" and "driving electro beats" with Cracknell's "smooth, cool coos",[4] while referencing Donna Summer's 1977 song "I Feel Love".

[6] Following "Twenty Five Years" is "DJ", which "starts out on the High Street but ends up in the underground club, mixing posh sounding effects and an adrenaline rush of techno synths to play out the song's conceit.

[14] The eleventh track "When I Was Seventeen" is a 1980s rock-inspired number,[14] and its lyrics find Cracknell reminiscing about the time she was living on the King's Road in London at age 17, after having just left home: "I was just having a ball but had no money at all.

[6] Lyrically, the song describes "a blossoming teenage romance built upon a mutual love of records",[9] while noting "how the memories evoked by old music hit harder as you age".

"[15] A super deluxe edition box set, limited to 1,000 copies, was released in the United Kingdom on 11 June 2012, containing a bonus disc of remixes (also included on the regular deluxe edition) and an exclusive four-track EP, in addition to an enamel badge, four art prints, a giant foldout Ordnance Survey map-style print of the album artwork, and a book packed with photography by Paul Kelly not used in any other format.

[16] In North America, a special edition of the album was released in a cardboard slipcase with a bonus disc titled More Words and Music, featuring ten exclusive tracks.

[3] AllMusic editor Tim Sendra wrote, "About half the record is drenched in nostalgia, vaguely melancholic and introspective [...] The other half of the album is built on bouncing beats, glittering synths, and Cracknell's feather-light vocals, and is designed to be played over radio waves and in sweaty nightclubs", adding that "[t]hese dual aspects of the record mesh perfectly, often on the same song, and Words and Music turns out to be one of the band's most enriching albums, both musically and emotionally.

[6] Arnold Pan of PopMatters opined, "What makes Words and Music stand out is that it's both polished and personal, a prime example of how a big pop sound can reach out and connect in the most intimate ways.

[12] Ian Wade, writing for BBC Music, called the album "[w]onderful stuff" and described it as "a fantastic and warm collection of jubilant happy/sad pop moments, delivering all that Saint Etienne are known for".

[32] DIY's Martyn Young concluded, "There is perhaps no band with a greater appreciation of the sheer joy and thrill of pop music in its purest form than Saint Etienne.

"[10] Barry Walters of Spin magazine summarised Words and Music as a "sustained, meticulous love letter to pop culture, the ultimate statement from consummate fans".