AllMusic editor William Cooper stated that
Bizarre Fruit is "chock-full of funky
house grooves", and
Heather Small's "deep, soulful vocals add just the right touch to the mix". He highlighted songs like "
Open Your Heart", "
Sight for Sore Eyes", "
Search for the Hero" and "Precious Pearl". Peter Galvin from
Entertainment Weekly viewed the album as a "irrepressible" follow-up to
Elegant Slumming, concluding that it "has more than its share of house-quaking grooves."
Music & Media wrote, "With its faint echoes of the '70s classic '
Papa Was a Rolling Stone', the song "Sugar Town" reveals some of M People's present influences, while the aptly-named "And Finally..." winds the tempo down and ends the album on a poignant note, with the nearest the band gets to a ballad." Johnny Dee from
NME praised it as "a consistently faultless and pleasing third album — it's obvious the M in their name now stands for 'Maturity'." He added, "It's impossible to see tracks as catchy as "Open Your Heart" and "Padlock" occupying any chart position other than Number One." Brad Beatnik from the
Record Mirror Dance Update said "it's not until "
Love Rendezvous" and the
swing-styled "Precious Pearl" that any real
soul creeps in. "Walk Away" is the album's arm-waving epic while the closing "And Finally..." is one of the highlights, a spoken epic of hope for the future." Mark Sutherland from
Smash Hits wrote, "
Bizarre Fruit is crammed full of "classy", "soulful" workouts like "Sight for Sore Eyes" and "Drive Time" (wonder when that'll be played on the radio?) that are pleasant in the extreme. But there's no sign of the glorious
handbag house stompalongs that made the last album such an event." ==Track listing==