The title track, a "roots masterpiece" according to Allmusic, hit big in both places, although Virgin Records lacked the foresight to release the number as a single. "Shame and Pride" was also successful in both Jamaica and the UK. Other Jamaican hits on the album include "I Need a Roof" and "Africa" "Rolling Stone" suggested that if charts had been permitted, "the Diamonds' brilliant singles, like 'Right Time' and 'Have Mercy,' would have been on top all last winter." The music is succinctly described in 2000's "World Music: The Rough Guide" as "[a] fine selection of sweetly harmonised vocals, militant 'rockers' rhythms and Garveyite lyrics." Although the music is sometimes unconventional, the themes are typical of reggae, focusing on what critic Robert Christgau encapsulates as "broken bodies" and "the exultation of oppression defied." The album has a strong spiritual base, with multiple references to Jah and repeated exhortations to proper behavior. Though several of the songs draw on ancient texts or historical events, they remain essentially oriented on the future. The song "Africa" is a relatively jaunty if wistful dream of repatriation that is more optimistic about the future return to Africa than mournful about the brutal separation from it. The "right time" referenced in the title track, the first song penned by the band itself, is the upcoming Apocalypse, with the band envisioning public response with lyrics that reference the Bible and the writings of Marcus Garvey. The latter song features a particularly tricky drum beat, which drummer Sly Dunbar recalled in 2001's "This is Reggae Music" evoked both skepticism and imitation: "When that tune first come out, because of that double tap on the rim nobody believe it was me on the drums, they thought it was some sort of sound effect we was using. Then when it go to number 1 and stay there, everybody started trying for that style and it soon become established." According to "the Independent", the entire album was "revolutionary", the breakthrough album of "masters of groove and propulsion" Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, with "Sly's radical drumming matching the singers' insurrectionary lyrics blow-for-blow." Garvey, Jamaica's first national hero and a recurrent referent in Rastafarian music, doesn't only feature on "Right Time", but appears on several other songs on the album, establishing what would become a persistent theme in the Mighty Diamond's work.