Elastica was well-received critically. The
Los Angeles Times opined that "the smart, sassy savagings of losers and poseurs are a refreshing advance from grunge's gloomy self-absorption."
The Independent concluded that "it is, yes, new new wave, and sometimes too close to old new wave: 'Vaseline' is Blondie and 'Waking Up' the Stranglers."
Select ranked the album at number 9 in its list of the "50 albums of the year". In the U.S., the album was ranked as the sixth best album of the year by
Mike Boehm in the
Los Angeles Times, and the album was also highly rated by
Rolling Stone,
Spin and
The Village Voice. In their retrospective review,
AllMusic praised the album, writing "what makes
Elastica such an intoxicating record is not only the way the 16 songs speed by in 40 minutes, but that they're nearly all classics" and that "hardly any new wave band made records this consistently rocking and melodic".
BBC Music wrote "As albums that fall off a genre's radar go, Elastica's eponymous debut ranks high", calling it "a neglected gem" and the "blueprint for what
Britpop should sound like".
Plagiarism allegations Elastica were sued by Wire on the charge of stealing from "
I Am The Fly" (1978) for the opening track "Line Up". They were also accused of lifting and transposing the guitar riff on their huge hit "Connection" from
Wire's "
Three Girl Rhumba" (1977). The band was also sued by
The Stranglers, who claimed that Elastica's single "Waking Up" borrowed heavily from "
No More Heroes" (1977). Both lawsuits were settled out of court. ==Commercial performance==