Smith's shrieks," was described as "one of the most terrifying Fall songs of them all".Dragnet would be the Fall's final album for Miles Copeland III's Step-Forward label; the band signed with Rough Trade Records in early 1980. Reception Reviews for Dragnet have been generally favourable. Sounds critic Dave McCullough wrote that "The Fall have never been stronger, the sound is more concise, more assured and Mark Smith's writing has an aura of confidence and direction to it." In his review for Record Mirror, Chris Westwood said that the album's "clattering demo-tape production" effectively draws attention to the songs' lyrics: "Odd lines of vocal stick, and it's the odd lines that count." Dragnet was ranked the 35th best album of 1979 by NME. David Quantick, reviewing the 1999 reissue for Q, found that Dragnet contains some of Smith's best songs and noted its crude production, remarking that the album sounds as if it "was recorded on a home cassette recorder in a multi-storey car park." Nicholas Collias, reviewing the 2004 reissue for the Boise Weekly, viewed the music on the album as providing "the blueprint for The Fall's golden age of the early 1980s: paper-thin rockabilly with tinny, meandering guitars and lilting keyboards." In his review of the 2016 reissue, Jason Heller of Pitchfork described the album as "weighty" and "overwhelmingly dense." Vulture's Stuart Berman cited Dragnet as "the first album where the Fall tap into their powers of hypnosis, locking into the sinister back-alley prowl of 'Before the Moon Falls' and the Morse code, cowbell-clanged pummel of 'Spectre vs Rector,' all while Smith transcends from the realm of mere punk carnival barker to oracle of the underground." In 2018, Billboard writer Geeta Dayal ranked it the Fall's fourth best album.Stereogums Robert Ham was less enthusiastic about Dragnet and felt that "the songs are playful and feel like they were constructed just a few minutes before the tape started rolling, but that doesn't suit this version of The Fall one bit," criticising its lack of "tension". Trouser Press opined that Dragnet is "not one of The Fall's best efforts, but contains at least two classic numbers, 'Spectre vs. Rector' and 'A Figure Walks'." AllMusic reviewer Ned Raggett noted that while several tracks "come across as Fall-by-numbers (even then, already better than plenty of other bands)," the album nonetheless includes "thorough standouts" such as "Spectre Vs Rector". Reissues In 2004, Castle Music