producer Carl Craig copies of the album and their own record, Dance Before the Police Come! (1991). According to Muggs, Now Is Early was potentially the first "vocalist album" in rave music, beyond the precedent of Rebel MC and his reliance on guest vocalists for his releases. The release coincided with a Shut Up and Dance showcase where Nicolette performed with an all-female band, working through jazzy acoustic material to rave music. Upon release, Now Is Early received some attention in the British music press. In an article for Select, Martin Pearson wrote that although the singer would be suited for dreamy, acoustic guitar-based folk music, her decision to pair with Shut Up and Dance's minimalist, "headbone-kicking beats" resulted in an unusually successful combination, and described the album as possessing a "determinedly different sound." An unspecified writer for the Newcastle Evening Chronicle was more reserved, feeling the jazzy, Porgy and Bess-esque singing and energetic music made for a disappointing combination. Nicolette said upon critics singling out her distinctive style: "No matter how different people think I sound, it wouldn't have occurred to me unless they told me so. To me, everyone sounds unique." In their year-end lists of 1992's best albums, Spex ranked Now Is Early third, while OOR ranked it 11th. Besides lending her vocals to various collaborations, including on Massive Attack's Protection (1994), Nicolette rarely recorded in the ensuing four years after the release of Now Is Early, only resuming her discography in 1996 after singing to Talkin' Loud. In 1997, Berlin-based !K7 Records released a digitally remastered version of Now Is Early with the bonus tracks "School of the World" and "Udi Egwu", both of which appeared on Nicolette's early single releases. That same year, Nicolette contributed DJ-Kicks: Nicolette to Studio !K7's DJ-Kicks mix album series. According to Muggs, the reissue of Now Is Early was in acknowledgment of the album's status as a "Bohemian gem [...] both timeless and utterly of its time". In a positive retrospective review, John Bush of AllMusic described Now Is Early as charting "an intriguing course between her soulful, house-influenced vocal work and the more hardcore production sound." Legacy Now Is Early has gone on to be considered an early example of jungle music, released before the genre had been given a name, while others have described it as an unjustly overlooked work. Reynolds credits the album for predicting the jazz-tinged