[2] In Spin, Steven Daly hailed World Clique as "the debut album of the year" and "an eloquent tableau of '90s possibilities", finding that Deee-Lite "keep the affair on a human scale" and distinguish themselves from other "digital Robin Hoods" by writing their own hooks and refraining from excessive sampling.

[13] "While their command of technology is determinedly progressive," wrote Don McLeese of the Chicago Sun-Times, "they use sampling for more than the usual recycling and bring a playfulness beyond the bloodless perfection that has come to characterize computer music.

[5] Record Mirror's Richie Blackmore complimented the group's "refreshing ability to master different dance styles",[8] while Richard Norris commented in Select that the album "sounds like the most fun you've ever had, a fittingly wordly mix of chunky funk, house and soul topped with some of the finest wiggly noises you'll have heard for a while.

[6] Rolling Stone reviewer Arion Berger felt that it features "formulaic well-chosen beats and not-quite-powerful vocals" and comes across as "a selective history of pop culture played as house music and compressed into easily swallowable three-minute bites.

[15] In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Ned Raggett wrote that frontwoman Lady Miss Kier "has not merely the pipes but the personality to carry something on her own", while producers DJ Dmitry and Towa Tei "come up with a seamless, adept flow throughout, merrily raiding whatever they so choose in the past for their own purposes.

[22] World Clique is Deee-Lite's most successful album, outlasting Infinity Within (1992) and Dewdrops in the Garden (1994) on the Billboard 200 chart and outperforming its successors in terms of highest peak position and mainstream exposure and sales.