Va Va Voom (album)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]
The Independent	[12]
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette	[13]
The Times	8/10[8]

The Stranger wrote that Gedge's voice "sounds mellower, more restrained than in the Wedding Present; the presence of Sally Murrell's gentile backing vocals lend an almost Franco-pop edge, the keyboards sweetened even further by blasts of trumpet and the odd lustful refrain."^[14] Trouser Press thought that "while Gedge and Murrell harmonize, vocals are deemphasized, and his typically surprising rhymes are AWOL."^[15] The Independent opined that "the melodic lightness of touch becomes irritatingly whimsical by 'You Turn Me On'."^[12]

The Toronto Star stated that "cellos, violins, flutes and the odd oboe mingle in articulate, softly strummed arrangements that soundcheck everything from '60s pop and '70s soul to the Burt Bacharach oeuvre."^[16] The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette declared that "this is rainy-day pop at its melodramatic best, with all the wounded self-absorption fans have come to ask ... of Wedding Present frontman David Gedge (but without all the raging guitars)."^[13] The Hartford Courant deemed the album "a wonderfully luscious collection of orchestrated, lovelorn pop that couldn't be more different from the tangled wall of guitars that usually marks the Wedding Present."^[7]

AllMusic called the album "classic, often theatrical pop that refreshingly escapes self-consciousness just by being itself, while retaining a strummed guitar at the center of things."^[11] The Stuart News listed it as one 1998's best "underheard" albums.^[17]