David Knights, writing for
Telegraph & Argus wrote: "Hear most of these songs for the first time and you'd think
Miss Minogue was behind the mike. Martine has abandoned the elegant lounge-singer image that last year gave thousands of housewives a "Perfect Moment." He felt that
Wishing was" more likely to appeal to their daughters: she's taking on the likes of
Britney and
S Club 7 with catchy pop. Martine's voice is pretty good - better than Kylie's, certainly - and the songs are diverse. All in all, a good pop album."
AllMusic editor John Lucas remarked that
Wishing "largely abandons the mid-tempo balladry which pushed
her debut album past platinum sales in the U.K., opting for the kind of light disco pop that the likes of Kylie Minogue and
Louise excel at [...] The majority of this album is bland and forgettable. McCutcheon remains a gifted singer, but her talents are wasted on this dull material." Arwa Haider from
NME called the album a "disappointing underachievement" and wrote: "Martine’s music is probably intended to sound dreamy. Unfortunately, this is another listless effort – as if her 1999 debut
You, Me & Us wasn’t sufficiently anodyne. And it’s not as though Martine can’t sing; her vocals are competent, if rather too given to schmaltz. The problem is, for an artist in her mid-twenties, she’s apparently oblivious to the fact that her music sounds so fusty." ==Commercial performance==