 Colin Larkin referred to the album as "excellent" in "The Virgin Encyclopedia of Dance Music", and he later elaborated in "The Virgin Encyclopedia of Nineties Music" that "Second Light" captured Dreadzone's varied sound better than their other albums, "notably the folk-influenced melodies and bouncy grooves of 'Captain Dread' and 'Little Britain', and the trancey 'One Way' and 'Zion Youth'.