This is the group's rawest and most R&B-oriented album, firmly rooted in the same influences as
the Rolling Stones and
the Pretty Things and including punk covers of
Chuck Berry,
Bo Diddley,
Muddy Waters,
Jimmy Reed, et al., along with a few originals in the same vein. For those who don't get enough rough-and-ready British-style R&B and rock & roll from the debut albums by
the Stones or
Pretty Things, or find the playing by either band a little too tame and mannered,
The Sect should be their next stop. Nobody on the British isles, other than maybe
Brian Jones in his private moments on the guitar and harp, was more charmingly primitive than
the Downliners Sect were on this album, which trades so freely in
Bo Diddley riffs and the latter's signature beat that latecomers could be forgiven for thinking that this band had a hand in inventing them.
–
Richie Unterberger & Bruce Eder, Rovi