Reviewing
Dead Letter Office for
Rolling Stone, Jimmy Guterman described it as a "clearinghouse" for outtakes, covers and B-sides that should not alienate those who dislike it because it would not interrupt R.E.M.'s regular release schedule. He enjoyed
Dead Letter Office for being the band's loosest and least ambitious album, as well as "the first R.E.M. record wholly without pretension". Less favorably,
The Village Voices
Robert Christgau quipped: "Peter Buck describes these B sides and outtakes as 'a
junkshop.' Dumpster would be more like it. You can throw away a Velvets cover or three without anybody getting hurt, but bad Pylon gives unsuspecting young people the wrong idea." Among British reviewers,
Kerrang!s Howard Johnson deemed it a collection of "out-takes, piss-takes and mis-takes, an intriguing insight into the history of a class band." He particularly praised the choice of Aerosmith cover and concluded that although the album isn't to be taken seriously, "maybe these days there's a real place in the business for music for pleasure!" In his
NME review, Danny Kelly commented that the 15 tracks are "the detritus of R.E.M.'s four years as the greatest non-
noise rock band on the face of the planet", describing the material as "an invaluable set of chicken bones, clues (but
only clues) to the mystery of R.E.M.'s divinity." He nonetheless said that while the album would be fascinating for devoted fans, curious newcomers should hear
Murmur (1983) or
Lifes Rich Pageant (1986) first. Later in 1987, Kelly deemed the compilation "an undoubted indulgence, but, given that R.E.M. attract a following of the most devoted,
addicted, kind, perhaps a necessary one." In a retrospective review,
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of
AllMusic commented that
Dead Letter Office "sums up all of the quirks and idiosyncrasies that made R.E.M. the leading
underground guitar pop band of the '80s." While believing that few of the songs are among the band's best work, he considers the album "extremely entertaining, even for casual fans", for how it "captures the wild spirit of R.E.M. that was evident at their concerts, but not always on their records."
Ultimate Classic Rock reflected that the release of such a collection was a surprise from the
anti-commercial R.E.M. and confounded expectations, but that its content "happily exceeded" them, adding that instead of being a "hastily assembled cash grab," the collection "opened a window" into both R.E.M.'s in-studio creative process and "sometimes surprising influences". In an
Uncut guide to R.E.M.'s work, Andrew Mueller described
Dead Letter Office as a "
rag-and-bone wagon" that disproved that R.E.M. "could do no wrong", but nonetheless praised it as a companion to the main discography "that functions as a kind of
Rosetta Stone for deciphering a band who had, up to that point, made a virtue of their opacity." He notes that it formally acknowledges R.E.M.'s influences, "from
art school, to
AM radio, to the heritage of their hometown of
Athens, Georgia."
Pitchfork critic Michael Idov praises the album for its "drunken studio fuckery". ==Legacy==