While many derided the album for its apparent lack of focus, others praised it for showing a different side of the band than usual, with blues, bluegrass and jazz being very prominent as musical genres in this recording.

The funk-fusion tinged "Apple Blossoms" first appeared as the B-side to "Jerusalem", "Brain Salad Surgery" had first surfaced as part of a 1973 BSS promotional flexi-disc before becoming the flip side to "Fanfare for the Common Man", and "Tiger in a Spotlight" was briefly considered as a 1974 single but held over until this album.

"Maple Leaf Rag" was a faithful ragtime cover from Emerson, "Watching Over You" and "So Far To Fall" were guitar-based outtakes from Lake's solo side, while "Bullfrog" and "Close But Not Touching" were jazz-fusion instrumentals originating from Palmer's sessions.

In a contemporary review, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice facetiously remarked that it is "news" when "the world's most overweening 'progressive' group" makes an album "less pretentious than its title", but questioned whether it is "rock and roll".

[9] In a retrospective review, AllMusic's David Ross Smith felt that it was "highly underrated" and wrote that the album's "brief pieces sustain interest; there really isn't a weak tune in the set.

[11] Some early concerts in 1977 were performed with a hand-picked orchestra and choir, but the idea was shelved after 18 shows with the band due to budget constraints.