Billboard magazine called Relayer "another nearly flawless effort" by Yes and noted Moraz "fits in perfectly". It concluded with "one of the simpler, yet at the same time, one of the most workable sets the band has come up with." Those who gave the album a negative review thought it was the follow-up to Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973), an album they felt was pretentious and overblown. In a retrospective review, AllMusic rated the album three stars out of five, stating Yes had "little incentive to curb their musical ambitiousness" at the time, the album "alternated abrasive, rhythmically dense instrumental sections featuring solos for the various instruments with delicate vocal and choral sections featuring poetic lyrics devoted to spiritual imagery." The band Howe described the music on Relayer as "very modern, European style of music, and Patrick brought in a South American flavour as well. It was a very international record". Squire thought some of the interaction between his bass and White's drums was better than anything heard on previous Yes albums at that point. Moraz summarised the album's recording as "pretty loose, but the energy is there". Upon its release, Wakeman was asked to review it for the BBC and felt pleased that the band had made it as it was "far too jazzy and freeform, which I didn't like". Had the group recorded music more melodic and thematic, he would have felt angry as it would have been the direction that he thought Yes should have adopted. "I'm pleased I made the right decision to leave the band when I did". Reissues Relayer was first reissued on CD in 1988 on the Atlantic in Europe and the US. The CD mastering has been attributed to Zal Schreiber, one of Atlantic's in-house CD mastering engineers at the time. In 1998, a mini-sleeve HDCD version mastered by Isao Kikuchi was released in Japan . In 2003, the album was digitally remastered on Rhino and Elektra Records by George Marino at Sterling Sound. This version included single edits of "Soon" and "Sound Chaser" and a studio run-through of "The Gates of Delirium" with less keyboards and alternate song structures in parts but an identical "battle" section as heard in the final version. 2009 saw the album remastered by Isao Kikuchi for the Japanese market. The 2003 remastered edition was included in the band's The Studio Albums 1969–1987 box set, released in