consistently influential and thus perhaps even quietly revolutionary." Indie Hoy described it in 2021 as a "cult record still unfairly underrated by Anglo-centric music critics and undoubtedly a culminating work of French pop of all time." Reissuing the album in 2016, EMI stated: "La question has become a virtual calling-card for Hardy and has proven to be extremely influential on the modern French pop scene." The review also read: "Although she's had albums that were more successful, sales-wise, [the album] continues to be embraced by new generations of music fans." Writer Syd Fablo felt that the album "[puts] forward [a musical persona] that [was] unique to the heyday second-wave feminism—not in terms of overt feminist militancy but instead (and somewhat paradoxically) by being unassuming thinking-woman's music of a kind that simply wasn't given much of an airing in prior times." Writers agree that the album represents an important turning point in Hardy's career, moving towards a more mature style and abandoning her more commercial efforts of her yé-yé period. Pitchfork's Jazz Monroe wrote that the "spare, haunting [album] might be the first truly personal Françoise Hardy record." The singer has acknowledged this, stating: "I was never as proud of a work as with this record, it was my best album, classic and sophisticated." She also reflected in a 2012 interview: "[During the 1960s] radios were practicing a real hype, much more than today. We, the singers were far, far fewer than today - and there were fewer radios. It was also the heyday of Salut les copains, and the press played an extremely important role, it could promote beginners. [...] At the same time, fashion had become increasingly important, it had never been. [...] However, I felt that we were not very popular with the previous generation, or with some journalists. I never felt a great sympathy, a great receptivity in someone like Denise Glaser especially. Or Pierre Dumayet (among others), who wanted to pinch us over our ignorance—we often came from relatively poor working classes, while the next wave of Alain Souchon, Véronique Sanson, Michel Berger, Julien Clerc came from... the bourgeoisie. I felt oddly legitimized in the early 1970s, when I made [La question]. This album did not work at all but I felt that I was moved to another stage, and I was interesting people I had never interested before." The album was influential to Greg Gonzalez,