"Robert Christgau, writing in "The Village Voice", felt that Prince Be composed better as an R&B songwriter for the album than on "Jesus Wept" and stated, "with a steady band, a sometime collaborator, and the occasional borrowed riff, he revives his spaced-out spirituality as music if not commodity, transfiguring his grumpy disillusion with melodies, vocal harmonies, and now also guitar parts, all lovingly designed to convince his son Christian to be here now."