The Very Crystal Speed Machine

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]
Calgary Herald	B[12]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[10]
Rock Hard	8.0/10[5]

Trouser Press concluded that "the album completes Thee Hypnotics’ transition from self-conscious fetishists aping a vintage sound to dedicated retroids ready to join the real things in the road-goes-ever-on trenches."^[8] The Washington Post thought that "Ray Hanson's guitar still has an appealing swagger that gives its familiar blue-rock riffs a contemporary edge, and tracks like 'Ray's Baudelaire' and 'Peasant Song', if minor, are distinctively eccentric."^[4] The Calgary Herald declared that Thee Hypnotics "do to the head what the Black Crowes do to the soul."^[12]

The New York Times determined that "making good, original rock-and-roll usually means executing an effective synthesis of styles, but Thee Hypnotics kept its influences separate."^[13] The Province opined that the band "are the closest they've come to getting the balance right between citing their sources (in the early days it was The Stooges and MC5) and finding their own voice."^[14] The Arizona Daily Star called The Very Crystal Speed Machine "one of the finest mainstream rock albums of the year so far."^[15]

AllMusic deemed the album "a finely crafted piece of classic rock, much more inspired than the last Thee Hypnotics album."^[11]