 Robert Christgau professed his initial dislike of an album of cover versions, before revising his opinion after repeated listens, admitting that "it hit me once again that reggae tunes can take a long, long time to hook in".In his retrospective review for AllMusic, David Jeffries called "Labour of Love" "a near perfect album, one filled with warmth and an infectious love of the music it's covering", and that even if its most famous track had been overplayed on the radio, "the end-to-end LP flow is classic while recontextualizing 'Red Red Wine' for the better".Reviews of the 2015 deluxe edition remained positive, but lamented that "Labour of Love" didn't have the intensity of the band's earlier, more political, records.