Beautiful Light

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[10]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[11]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[12]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide	[13]
Orlando Sentinel	[9]
The Tampa Tribune	[14]

Entertainment Weekly wrote that the band, "with the help of lean, rootsy production by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, crafted their most earnest release."^[12] Trouser Press noted that "'Mushroom Cloud' reconnects the band to the organ-powered psychedelia that has served it well in the past."^[15] The Vancouver Sun panned Buck's "thin and even" production work.^[16]

Stereo Review determined that "the Fleshtones rise to the occasion with a hunka-hunka burning blues/psych originals and enough garage-bred mustiness to keep things honest."^[17] Rolling Stone concluded that, "when the Fleshtones resist the archness that sometimes infects their artful trash, they deliver grins."^[18] The Tampa Tribune lamented the "somber mood" of Beautiful Light.^[14]

AllMusic called the album "a solid record," writing that "Pickin' Pickin'" "features a fast, scale-climbing bass guitar rounded out by a slick horn section and barroom piano."^[10] MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide deemed it "a pure pop record."^[13]