Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau wrote that Poetic Champions Compose is somewhat dull but tasteful "dinner music" because "in his current spiritual state", Morrison "doesn't much care about interesting. He just wants to roll on, undulating from rhythmic hill to melodic dale." Rolling Stone magazine's Jimmy Guterman wrote that some of the music and lyrics sound boring and do nothing but set a mood, but even without any progression by Morrison, the album is "another worthy installment in his series of soulful, meditative explorations". Don McLeese from the Chicago Sun-Times said most of the songs "could be categorized as mood music. But musical moods are rarely this sublime". In a rave review, Audio magazine hailed it as a prime example of rock music being rendered on the then-new CD format, as the music is "grounded in superb instrumental and vocal performances captured in a way which reflects a sonic reality rather than a fabrication." Poetic Champions Compose was voted the 21st best album of 1987 in The Village Voices annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine said only a few songs distinguish themselves from the album's dulcet, arty mood and mid-tempo balladry, but concluded that "this record is warmer, stronger than many of its predecessors, one of his highlights from the '80s." Colin Larkin highlighted "Spanish Steps", "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child", and "Someone Like You" in The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2006), finding the songs "moving". Rob Sheffield was less enthusiastic in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), deeming the album one of several "cranky self-imitations" that plagued Morrison's "painful slump in the '80s". Track listing All songs written by Van Morrison except as noted. Side one "Spanish Steps" – 5:20 "The Mystery" – 5:16 "Queen of the Slipstream" – 4:55 "I Forgot That Love Existed" – 4:17 "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" (traditional) – 4:27 Side two "Celtic Excavation" – 3:17 "Someone Like You" – 4:06 "Alan Watts Blues" – 4:24 "Give Me My Rapture" – 3:44 "Did Ye Get Healed?" – 4:06 "Allow Me" – 3:53 Personnel Musicians Van Morrison – lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, alto saxophone Neil Drinkwater – piano, synthesizer Martin Drover – trumpet, flugelhorn Roy Jones – drums, percussion Steve Pearce – bass Mick Cox – lead guitar on "I Forgot That Love Existed" & "Alan Watts Blues" June Boyce –