Richard Riccio of the
St. Petersburg Times described "Sailing on the Seven Seas" as "fabulous... a rollicking foot-stomper in its original version, and a haunting late-night dance track in remixed [B-side] form." Multiple outlets ranked the song among the best of 1991. In a retrospective review,
AllMusic critic
Dave Thompson wrote that OMD "sail giddily through the musical past", delivering "a glorious musical mélange, an inspired melding of synth pop soar,
2-Tone yore, and
glam rock roar, the anthemic chorus to the fore with a fist-in-the-air punch that shouts out for more".
Classic Pop listed "Sailing on the Seven Seas" among the "Top 20 Comeback Singles" in history. Humphreys described the track as "a great, kind of a weird pop song". Original OMD drummer
Malcolm Holmes, who also had no involvement in the song, said, "I loathe the track – I do. But it charted and it did the business." After returning to the band, Holmes commented, "'Sailing on the Seven Seas' is a great thing to play as a drummer. When I started to play it, it became something else to me... so I don't really see the song as how I did in those days. The singer
Liz McClarnon says she first discovered "Sailing on the Seven Seas" through the compilation album ''
Now That's What I Call Music! 20'' (1991), and surprised McCluskey by singing it to him during her successful audition for McCluskey's girl group
Atomic Kitten: "I started singing it to him. He was like 'Can't believe you know that'. So obviously then I stuck in
his head." ==Versions and B-sides==