In a review of the album for
AllMusic, David Jeffries described "Gaudete" as "[combining]
Kraftwerk beats with a 16th century song, and all by way of [previous "Gaudete" performers]
Steeleye Span." He opined that "the miracle bit is that Erasure's thoroughly modern take on the cut could warm the heart of a deep space robot, echoing into the vacuum with
sequencers, sacred vocals, church bells, and not the slightest hint of cheese." He praised vocalist
Andy Bell's performance on the song, calling it "triumphant and sincere", and on the album overall he described musician
Vince Clarke's "brand of
electro-pop" as "the ghosts of Christmases
future,
past, and
present all at once, with the crispness of the
MP3 age meeting bleeps and bloops that could have been on
Erasure album number one (1986)." Jeffries went on to say that "Old [Christmas] favorites get the Erasure spin as "
Silent Night" is delivered dramatically as if it was
Dylan Thomas' "
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night", while "
White Christmas" is an almost
audio verite piece, covering Bell's scratchy record performance with a
Pachinko bar worth of downtown
Tokyo sounds. That's much more effort than veteran acts usually pour into a holiday album [...]. ==Commercial performance==