''The B-52's
album has received critical acclaim, with music reviewers praising its infectious rhythms and guitar riffs, kitschy lyrics, and party atmosphere. In June 1979, British rock critic Paul Rambali of the New Musical Express wrote: "This is the best debut album of the year. No conditions, no exceptions. As innovative and invigorating as New Boots and Panties or Talking Heads '77, and as wayward yet accessible. That good." Similarly, two weeks later in Record Mirror, British journalist Tim Lott wrote that The B-52's
album was the best record he had heard that year. In his "Consumer Guide" column for The Village Voice'', music critic
Robert Christgau remarked on his fondness "for the pop junk they recycle—with love and panache," while also noting that he was "more delighted with their rhythms, which show off their
Georgia roots by adapting the innovations of early
funk (a decade late, just like
the Stones and
Chicago blues) to an endlessly danceable forcebeat format." In the 1979
Pazz & Jop year-end critics poll, ''The B-52's
album was ranked number 7. New Musical Express'' ranked it number 12 on
their critics' list of the best albums of 1979. In a retrospective review,
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of
AllMusic wrote: "Unabashed kitsch mavens at a time when their peers were either vulgar or stylish, the
Athens quintet celebrated all the silliest aspects of pre-
Beatles pop culture – bad hairdos,
sci-fi nightmares, dance crazes, pastels, and anything else that sprung into their minds – to a skewed fusion of pop,
surf,
avant-garde, amateurish
punk, and white funk." In 2003,
Rolling Stone ranked ''The B-52's
number 152 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, maintaining the ranking in a 2012 update of the list and dropping it to number 198 in a 2020 update. In 2003, VH1 named it the 99th greatest album of all time. The B-52's
was included in the 2005 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2013, it was ranked number 452 on the New Musical Express'' critics' list of
the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Slant Magazine included it on their 2003 list of 50 Essential Vital Pop Albums. In 1995, ''The B-52's
was named number 42 on the top 100 alternative albums list of all time by the Spin Alternative Record Guide. Rolling Stone
ranked the album number 28 on its 2013 list of 100 best debut albums of all time, dropping it to number 43 in a 2022 update. In 2023, Paste'' magazine's staff placed ''The B-52's
at number 86 on their list of the 100 greatest debut albums of all time. PopMatters'' magazine named it number 40 on its 2024 list of the 50 best post-punk albums ever. == Influence ==