 This continued the artistic theme established by Malcolm Garrett on the covers of "Another Music in a Different Kitchen" (squares) and "Love Bites" (circles).In a contemporary review of "A Different Kind of Tension", Mikal Gilmore of "Rolling Stone" felt that the album suffered from repetitiveness, "resulting in a catchall of reworked riffs and static, similar tempos", while nonetheless praising it as their "most formidable record yet".In a retrospective review, "Rolling Stone"s Jon Dolan called "A Different Kind of Tension" the best of the band's first three albums.